Faculty

Research Overview

Jennie Noll, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Rochester and the new Executive Director of the University’s Mt. Hope Family Center (MHFC) dedicated to promoting psychological health and preventing maladjustment and mental illness in the lives of children and families within Greater Rochester. MHFC contracts with the Department of Human Services, local school districts, and pediatric health providers to deliver culturally sensitive mental health and trauma treatments, preventive services, and home-visiting support for at-risk and struggling children, youth, and parents.

Partnering with local agencies and families, MHFC co-creates and then, through federal research funds totaling $72 million over the past 25 years, rigorously tests novel trauma-responsive interventions that meet the unique needs of the Rochester community. They then provide no-cost trainings for students and practitioners locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally to increase access to these and other evidence-based practices thereby reducing health disparities for the traditionally underserved.

With contiguous NIH funding of $32 million as Principal Investigator, Dr. Noll has devoted her career to studying the biopsychosocial impact of child maltreatment and the primary prevention of child sexual abuse. Before being recruited to MHFC in 2023, Dr. Noll spent a decade at Penn State University in the wake of the Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal as the founding director of a center focused on child maltreatment research and training. Within 5 years, Penn State received the first NIH-funded Center of Excellence in child maltreatment research and training—MHFC was subsequently the second recipient of only three ever awarded.

Dr. Noll’s vision for sustaining over three decades of MHFC’s impact and success includes: an enduring national and international reputation for seamlessly integrating cutting-edge research into their clinical service array, the leveraging of science to impact policies that benefit children and families, a laser-focused vision for making the Rochester community safer and healthier, and a fierce dedication to equipping and inspiring the next generation of trainees and practitioners to do the same.