Alice Jean Wuermli

Alice is a Senior Research Scientist and the Director for Research and Innovation at Global TIES for Children, an international research center embedded in the Institute for Human Development and Social Change at New York University. She applies transdisciplinary, multi-methods, and participatory approaches to generate evidence on how to best support children and youth’s development in low- and middle-income countries and conflict affected contexts. Alice's current interests pertain to understanding the biological embedding and intergenerational transmission of prepregnancy/-natal trauma and adversity to offspring outcomes, the factors that protect from this embedded risk, the interpenetration of culture and neurobiology, and adolescent motherhood. As such, her work draws from a range of disciplines and methods to incorporate multiple levels of the human bioecosystem, from molecules to culture and context. Alice thrives in environments of constructive thought diversity where a multitude of ideas come together to create solutions to complex problems. Alice is the PI on an ambitious prenatal birth and early years cohort study in the Rohingya refugee context in Bangladesh (Intergenerational Risk and Resilience of Rohingya in Displacement; iRRRd) that started under Play to Learn, one of two large-scale initiatives focused on early childhood development in refugee contexts. 

Alice holds a BA in International Affairs and Governance from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, a MA in International Development / Development Economics from American University, and a PhD in Human Development / Developmental Neurobiology from UC Davis. Between her MA and PhD, Alice spent three years at the World Bank working on youth and livelihoods development and gender.