Robert W. Roeser is the Bennett Pierce Professor of Caring and Compassion in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Health and Human Development, at Penn State University. His PhD is from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan (1996), and he also has master’s degrees in religion and psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical social work. Rob has been a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar (1999-2004), a United States Fulbright Scholar in India (2005, 2017), and the Senior Program Coordinator for the Mind and Life Institute (2007-2010).
His main research interests focus on child and adolescent development; school as a primary sociocultural context of holistic human development; and student motivation, learning and broader well-being and self/identity development. More recent work has focused on the role of contemplative practices that cultivate qualities like mindfulness and compassion in education in relation to educators’ and students’ social-emotional wellbeing, health, ethical development, and teaching and learning.
His laboratory is devoted to the creation of new forms of mindfulness and compassion training in education, as well as to the evaluation of such programs with regard to individual outcomes and the promotion of more equitable and compassionate communities of learning in schools (see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2P-usd4AAAAJ&hl=en).
