Mission, Vision, & Values

Group of students standing with a sign

Our Mission

IHD cultivates innovative, cross-disciplinary scholarship and training to reshape systems and promote human development and thriving across the life course — for all infants, children, adolescents, families, and society.

Girl sitting on mom's lap

Our Vision

A world where all infants, children, youth, and families benefit from equitable and expansive opportunities for thriving across the life course.

Girl posing

Our Values

Pressing and complex challenges in human development call for:

  • Effective collaboration across disciplines, as no one discipline has the answers.
  • Ethical and rigorous multi-method research;
  • Respect for and learning from youth, families, and policy/practice expertise to strengthen research relevance and impact;
  • Trustworthy and sustained partnered and participatory research approaches to inform research and innovations while empowering youth and families;
  • Intergenerational mentorship and training to support the next generation of integrative and impactful scholars.