Biography

Kimberly Yolton, PhD, is a developmental psychologist and epidemiologist with over 25 years of experience studying the impact of prenatal and early life exposures on neurobehavior in infancy and throughout childhood. She was formerly the director of a follow-up clinic serving high-risk infants and young children and has extensive experience with infants and children who were prenatally exposed to substances of abuse, were born prematurely or at low birth weight, or who come from disadvantaged home environments. She was involved in the initial development of the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS), a specialized neurobehavioral assessment tool used with healthy and high-risk newborns. She is certified to train others in the proper administration, scoring, and interpretation of the NNNS and has used the tool for clinical, research, and teaching purposes.

In addition to her extensive research experience, she has over 30 years of experience as a teacher, trainer, and mentor. She regularly conducts training for single and multi-site research studies. She is a member of the training faculty within three T32 training programs, and she has been a mentor to students at educational stages ranging from high school to postdoctoral. She is also associate director of a NRSA Fellowship program and is committed to fostering the development of the next generation of researchers.

Dr. Yolton came to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center as a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric environmental health in 2000 and joined the faculty in 2003. She earned her master's degree in family and child development from Virginia Tech and her doctoral degree in child development and developmental psychology from The Ohio State University.