In this chapter I describe how my interests in and commitment to developmental psychology grew in a multidimensional, discontinuous, nonlinear fashion. Prominent early personal, social, and intellectual influences included: coming of age in the 1960s, transitioning from fervent Catholicism to philosophy and science as my guiding stars through college and graduate school. I shape my story around the notion that “half of life is accident, and the other half is what one intentionally makes out of accident.” I began my work by focusing on the nature, causes and consequences of child maltreatment. Pursuing further research, practice, and policy interests, I conducted theory-informed longitudinal studies of the influence of risk factors (especially poverty and violence) on various dimensions of developmental processes and outcomes. More recently, I shifted focus to the design, conduct and analysis of randomized trials of school and/or neighborhood-based, social-emotional learning interventions, in the USA and then in conflict-and-crisis affected countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Creating and supporting collaborations with students, colleagues, and organizations has been critical throughout.

Design-based research (DBR) is a methodology used to study learning in environments that are designed and systematically changed by the researcher. The goal of DBR is to engage the close study of learning as it unfolds within a particular context that contains one or more theoretically inspired innovations and then to develop new theories, artifacts, and practices that can be used to inform research and learning in other related contexts beyond the one classroom being studied. In DBR, research improves practice at the same time as it results in fundamental research findings that can be generalized. The widespread use of DBR by learning scientists demonstrates the field’s commitment to impacting classroom practice, and is consistent with a focus on complex learning environments that involve many people in situated social practices.