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LEADERSHIP
When Dr. Dumitriu and Dr. Welch first met, they immediately connected over a shared vision: emotional connection for every child and family. After three years as Director for Translational Research at NSP, Dr. Dumitriu assumed the title of Director of NSP in 2022, while Dr. Welch assumed the title of Founding Director Emeritus.
We are poised to walk together into a future where doctors and families understand the primacy of relational health and its mechanisms, and use evidence-based tools to foster emotional connection for this generation and beyond.
Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD | Director
Dani Dumitriu, MD, PhD, is a pediatrician and neuroscientist dedicated to conducting research into the mechanisms of emotional connection and resilience across species and lifecourse. Dr. Dumitriu currently serves as Director of the Nurture Science Program, is principal investigator of the DOOR lab (Developmental Origins of Resilience), is on the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Early Relational Health Steering Committee, and cares for newborns in the Well Baby Nursery at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Her most recent research in humans focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the generation born during these uncertain and changing times, and she is the founder and Chair of Columbia University's COMBO Initiative.
Martha G. Welch, MD, DFAPA | Founding Director Emeritus
Martha G. Welch, MD, DFAPA has been a pioneer in the treatment of emotional, behavioral, and developmental disorders for over 40 years. Decades of clinical observations led her to create a new paradigm that centers the primacy of co-regulatory processes in optimal child development. Dr. Welch founded The Nurture Science Program to conduct basic and clinical research aimed at elucidating the mechanism of parent-infant and parent-child co-regulation, leading her to develop the novel theoretical construct of emotional connection.