Barbara H. Fiese is The Pampered Chef, Ltd. Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency and Professor and Director of the Family Resiliency Center in the Department of Human and Community Development at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She also holds affiliated appointments in the Departments of Psychology and Pediatrics. Dr. Fiese received her Ph.D. in Clinical and Developmental Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1987. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and serves on the Editorial Boards of Family Process, Journal of Family Psychology, and Journal of Pediatric Psychology. She served as Chair of the Department of Psychology at Syracuse University from 2000 to 2008.
Dr. Fiese's research focuses on family level factors that promote health and well-being in children at risk due to physical illness and/or poor childraising conditions. She also examines how family rituals may promote medical adherence and reduce anxiety in children with chronic illnesses and tracks how changes in child and parent stories about family events are related to child and family adjustment. Her latest book, Family Routines and Rituals, was published in 2006 by Yale University Press.
Dr. Fiese is committed to bringing developmental and family social science to the public in a manner that can inform policy and assist key decision makers. She serves as the Chair of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Children, Youth and Families, and serves on the Society for Research in Child Development's Policy and Communication Committee.
