Elaine Reese

Elaine Reese is an American-New Zealand developmental psychologist who has researched the impact of stories of all types on children’s and adolescents’ development and well-being for over 30 years. Her focus is on how parents and teachers in diverse cultures support young people’s language, literacy, and socioemotional development through the stories they share from books and the family stories they tell together. Elaine received her B.A. in Psychology from Trinity University, her M.A. and Ph.D. from Emory University, and has taught at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cognition and Development and as an advisor to the longitudinal birth cohort study Growing Up in New Zealand. She is currently leading a national early childhood education study called Kia Tīmata Pai: The Best Start Study. Elaine is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand/Te Apārangi.