Meet Dr. Gerry
Geraldine V. Oades-Sese, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist and a children’s book author. She was an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She was the Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Child Development. She held joint faculty appointments at Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and the Graduate School of Education.
Dr. Oades-Sese serves as an advisor to WNET Thirteen PBS Kids and was an advisor and principal investigator for a large scale resilience study for Sesame Workshop’s childhood resilience initiative, Little Children, Big Challenges.
Education
Ph.D., Fordham University, 2006
MS.Ed., Fordham University, 2005
B.A., Rutgers University, 1998
Clinical Experience
Dr. Oades-Sese’s 15-year clinical experience includes providing comprehensive psychological and neuropsychological assessments and therapeutic interventions for infants through college students. She has worked with children with developmental delays, learning disabilities, multiple handicaps, trauma history, selective mutism, and the gifted and talented. She has also worked with at-risk youths involved with gangs and violence. She has authored a number of empirical articles and book chapters on resilience, early childhood development, assessment, and culturally sensitive interventions. In an effort to expand the role of school psychologists, she co-developed a Pediatric Psychology Practicum Program at Rutgers RWJ Medical School to integrate school psychology doctoral-level students and master-level social work students into pediatric primary care settings. She also provided supervision of these students.
Research
Dr. Oades-Sese was the founder and director of the Research Lab for Resilience and Early Childhood Development. Her research consisted of identifying protective factors that foster resilience in culturally and linguistically diverse civilian and military children and developing resilience-based interventions. Her projects include:
Sesame Street
The Sesame Street Resilience Project (2013-2021) examines the effectiveness of a Sesame Street resilience enhancing intervention for young children. The project includes the following:
- School-based intervention to build resilience in over 3000 young civilian and military-related children
- Divorce intervention to build resilience in 160 families with young children
- Incarceration intervention to build resilience in 100 families with young children
School-Based Intervention to Build Resilience In Military Families
Project C.O.M.B.A.T. (2015-2016) was an initiative to develop school-based training workshops to educate schools about building resilience in military-family children as well as creating an infrastructure to meet their mental health needs.
Identifying Resilience In Hispanic American Bilingual Preschool Children
Project Resilience (2007-2011) was a 3-year longitudinal study that examined the social-emotional and academic resilience of 400 at-risk Hispanic American preschool children.
Project Social Competence (2004-2011) – a longitudinal study to identify protective factors and resilience profile in 207 Hispanic American preschool children
Teaching
Dr. Oades-Sese has taught the following courses at Rutgers University, Fordham University, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice:
Doctoral Level:
Pediatric Psychology School Psychology Externship Program
Individual Cognitive Assessment
Cognitive Behavioral Assessment of Psychological Disorder in Children
Clinical Practicum in School Psychology and Bilingual School Psychology
Integration of Assessment Techniques.
Masters Level:
From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Human Development in Context (Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences)
Pediatric Psychology Practicum for Social Work
Biomedical Sciences Capstone Research Project
Site for Field Practicum in Social Work
Undergraduate Level:
Introduction to Psychology 2
Research in Psychology
Internship in Arts and Sciences
Internship in Social Work