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A. Dirk Hightower, Ph.D.
Senior Associate

A. Dirk Hightower, Ph.D. is a Senior Associate at Children’s Institute and Senior Research Associate at the University of Rochester. He was Executive Director of Children’s Institute, Inc. from 1991 to 2019 and Research Director from 1982 to 1991. He has co-authored scores of research papers, chapters and a book. He has served on the editorial board of various research journals. His primary interests include social and emotional assessment, promoting healthy social and emotional development, evidenced-based prevention interventions for young children, community collaboration and the use and development of web-based decision support systems to enhance the translation and use of information (COMET). In 2007 he co-founded the COMET Informatics system and remains a consultant. He has been principal investigator on state and federal grants. He helped initiate and continues to have significant involvement with the RECAP, a multiagency collaborative focused on prekindergarten outcomes and GROW-Rochester a comprehensive screening and referral project for children 0 to age 8. In addition, he is Past President of the New York Association of School Psychologists and the Rush-Henrietta Board of Education where he served three terms. Presently, Dirk works on local collective impact efforts and serves on city, county and state advisory boards that focus on the developmental readiness and success of children.