Susan E. Craig, Ph.D., has devoted her professional career to teaching both children and adults. Her interest in the relationship between family violence and learning began early. While working as a young reading specialist, she noted that many of the children she evaluated had a history of family violence. Her interest piqued, she pursued a doctorate at the University of New Hampshire, studying under Murray Straus, Ph.D., world renowned for his research on family violence. Dr. Craig's 1986 dissertation established a relationship between children's exposure to violence and subsequent learning problems in language, memory, impulsivity, self-differentiation, and executive function. These findings, published in Phi Delta Kappan in 1992, are now confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, which documents the relationship between violence and brain development. Dr. Craig completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Miami. Working with Miami's Children's Protective Services and the assessment team at Jackson Memorial Hospital, she conducted intellectual evaluations of children who had been maltreated.During this time, she completed a 30-year retrospective study of child homicide in Dade County, Florida, which was published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence in 1989. Working on site with many school districts throughout the country, Dr. Craig supports teaching and administrative staff in creating inclusive, trauma-sensitive schools. In 2001, the Rockland County New York Bureau of Children's Educational Support (BOCES) received the National School Board Association Magna Award. The honor was in recognition of a program that Dr. Craig helped develop.
