Jacqueline Lerner


Jacqueline V. Lerner is Professor of Applied Developmental & Educational Psychology in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College, where she has taught since 1996. She is a member of the Society for Research in Child Development, the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, and Psi Chi. With her husband and research collaborator Richard M. Lerner, she has been active in promoting the concept of positive youth development.

Personal life

Lerner was born Jacqueline Rose Verdirame in Flushing, New York, in 1954. She is married to Richard M. Lerner, who is also a psychologist; they live in Wayland, Massachusetts. They have three children and four grandchildren.