Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development

Real-world solutions. Behavioral and developmental science. Community partnership.

At the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, we accelerate the path from research to real-world impact. We conduct health services research, behavioral and developmental science to protect and advance children’s physical, mental, and social well-being.

From understanding lifelong health risks to delivering accessible and equitable interventions to improve well-being, we bring research into the real-world settings where children live, learn, and play.
— Tonya M. Palermo, PhD, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development

Join the Center

Join a collaborative ecosystem of investigators dedicated to transforming child health and development. By becoming a CCHBD member, you gain access to exclusive funding, dedicated lab spaces and a supportive network of peers, while helping mentor the next generation of researchers.

Community Engagement and Collaborations Near and Far

One of the core guiding principles of our research is authentic community engagement. We built the Community Engagement Core to help researchers at the Seattle Children's Research Institute overcome critical barriers to creating and supporting respectful, bidirectional partnerships between communities and research teams. Working directly with families, caregivers and communities locally, nationally and globally, we aim to create solutions and expand treatment access to promote health and improve quality of life for people in our communities.

Collaborations are also an integral part of our work. Through collaborations with our colleagues at Seattle Children’s and our local community and school partners, as well as through multi-institutional partnerships across the nation and around the world, we are transforming child health and creating a healthier future where all children can thrive.

Clinicians, Scientists, and Communities Uniting for a Greater Impact on Child Health

Having diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives helps us care for children’s physical, mental and social well-being. Our investigators come from a variety of research backgrounds that allow them to lead team science initiatives and translate research into scalable interventions, sustainable policies and lasting improvements for children and their families.

Our Specialized Research Cores

We use advanced technology in our state-of-the-art facilities to conduct our research.

The Community Engagement Core

The CEC empowers investigators to conduct rigorous, community-engaged research across all study types.

The Behavior and Development Lab

The BDL includes space to conduct research visits within rooms dedicated to EEG and eye tracking, camera and video recording equipment and other research tools.

The Acti-Core

The Acti-Core provides equipment and support services to researchers using actigraphy — a wearable device to assess sleep-wake patterns and activity levels.

Center Leadership

Tonya M Palermo, PhD Director, Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development Dr. Palermo has been in Seattle since 2010 where she directs the Pediatric Pain & Sleep Innovations Lab. The focus of her research is on behavioral, psychosocial and family factors that affect pain experiences, the interrelationship of sleep and pain, and innovative psychological treatments for managing and preventing chronic pain. Currently, Dr. Palermo serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pain. Dr. Palermo has developed and evaluated several internet and mobile applications to deliver cognitive-behavioral interventions for chronic pain, and has published two books on cognitive-behavioral therapy. She is active in training clinician-scientists at the postdoctoral and faculty level and directs the T32 postdoctoral training program in anesthesiology research at the University of Washington.

Sheela Sathyanarayana, MD, MPH Associate Director, Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development Principal Investigator Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, associate director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, serves as the PI for The Infant Development and Environment Study (TIDES), a multi-center cohort study of phthalate exposures in pregnancy and health outcomes in children. She is also MPI of the ECHO-MEND, which, as part of the national NIH ECHO program will examine endocrine-disrupting chemicals in relation to child neurobehavior. She has served as the chair for the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee and served on the National Academies of Sciences Committee on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Low Dose Toxicity. She was also a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals that advises EPA on risk assessments related to the Toxic Substances Control Act. She is the Medical Director of the Newborn Nursery and performs consults through the UW Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit.

Our Research Programs

Featured Research

Our researchers accelerate evidence-based strategies to optimize whole-child health using behavioral science, implementation science, human-centered design, and community-engaged research. We are making advances in a broad range of child health topics, including:

Mental, behavioral and developmental health

Suicide risk
Neurodevelopmental and neurodiversity
Substance use
Sleep health

Physical health, prevention and condition management

Chronic condition management
Environmental health
Injury prevention, recovery and rehabilitation
Pain management

Healthcare delivery, quality and patient experience

Hospital and post-acute care
Transitions of care

Dr. Sara Jane Webb Awarded Grant up to $17.25M

Dr. Sara Jane Webb and Seattle Children’s join the international IMPACT Network to pioneer future clinical trials and therapeutic opportunities for children with profound autism.

Advancing Youth Mental and Behavioral Health: Seattle Children’s Shares Crucial Prevention Research

Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s second annual Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Research Summit tackles tough topics around suicide and self-harm prevention through evidence-based research and interventions.

NIH grant awarded to conduct a clinical trial on a firearm storage safety

Emily Kroshus-Havril, ScD, MPH, received a grant from the NIH to conduct a clinical trial studying the benefits of a web-based decision-making tool developed to help families safely store firearms.

Accuracy of AI compared to professional translations of hospital documents

Casey Lion, MD, MPH, and colleagues at Seattle Children’s and University of Washington compared AI translations to professionally translated discharge instructions. They found that AI performed similarly to professionals for Spanish but worse for other languages tested. Their results were published in JAMA Network Open

Research Saves Kids’ Lives

Seattle Children’s is a global leader driving life-changing breakthroughs for over 200 childhood diseases. But federal funding cuts are putting it all at risk.

Donate

Private donors could help accelerate our progress to find cures. Under designation, select “Other” and enter Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development when completing the form.

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