Leslie Leve
Biography
Professor Leve is the Lorry Lokey Chair in the College of Education and a “double duck,” receiving her masters and doctorate at the University of Oregon in the ‘90s in the College of Arts and Sciences and returning to the university in 2013 as a professor in the College of Education.
Professor Leve is best known for her research on child and adolescent development, gene-environment interplay, and interventions for underserved children, families, and communities. This includes preventive intervention studies with youth in foster care or juvenile justice system, adoption studies that examine the interplay between biological and social influences on development, and COVID-19 testing outreach programs for Latinx communities. She co-directs a Center on parenting in the context of opioid use. Her work also focuses on outcomes for girls and women. To date, she has published more than 190 scientific articles and 20 book chapters. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Education.
Professor Leve serves as the Associate Director for the Prevention Science Institute. In addition to her faculty role, Professor Leve is an Associate Vice President for Research. Professor Leve typically takes one new doctoral student, three masters students, and three undergraduate students each year and strongly encourages applications from students from diverse backgrounds.
Education
Ph.D., 1995, University of Oregon
Major: Developmental Psychology
Advisor: Beverly Fagot, Ph.D.
M.S., 1991, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Major: Psychology
B.A., 1990, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
Major: Psychology
Honors and Awards
2021 Outstanding Researcher Award, University of Oregon
2017 Fund for Faculty Excellence Award, University of Oregon
2017 Alumni Faculty Professor, College of Education, University of Oregon
2011 Prevention Science Award, Society for Prevention Research
Publications
Cioffi, C. C. & Leve, L. D. (2020). Substance abuse treatment, parenting, and COVID-19. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 119, 108148.
Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Ganiban, J. M., Misaki, N. N., Shaw, D. S., & Reiss, D. (2019). The Early Growth and Development Study: A dual-family adoption study from birth through adolescence. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 22, 716 - 727. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2019.66
Leve, L. D., Griffin, A. M., Natsuaki, M. N., Harold, G. T., Neiderhiser, J. M., Ganiban, J. M., Shaw, D. S., & Reiss, D. (2019). Longitudinal examination of pathways to peer problems in middle childhood: A siblings-reared-apart design. Development and Psychopathology, 31, 1633-1647. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000890 NIHMSID: 1052969
Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Harold, G. T., Natsuaki, M. N., Bohannan, B. J. M, & Cresko, W. A. (2018). Naturalistic experimental designs as tools for understanding the role of genes and the environment in prevention research. Prevention Science, 19(1), 68–78. doi: 10.1007/s11121-017-0746-8 PMC: 5511771
Harold, G. T., Leve, L. D., & Sellers, R. (2017). How can genetically informed research help inform the next generation of interparental and parenting interventions? Child Development, 88(2), 446–458. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12742 PMC: 5567989
Leve, L. D., Chamberlain, P., & Kim, H. K. (2015). Risks, outcomes, and evidence-based interventions for girls in the U. S. juvenile justice system. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 18(3), 252–279. doi: 10.1007/s10567-015-0186-6. PMC: 4536111
Leve, L. D., Harold, G. T., Chamberlain, P., Landsverk, J. A., Fisher, P. A., & Vostanis, P. (2012). Practitioner review: Children in foster care: Vulnerabilities and evidence-based interventions that promote resilience processes. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53, 1197–1211. PMC: 3505234
Research
Professor Leve is currently focusing her research on: (1) promoting healthy outcomes for women with substance use histories; (2) utilizing genetic data to refine the understanding of how one’s family and contextual environment can promote healthy outcomes for children and adolescents; (3) examining the adult outcomes of juvenile justice involvement; and (4) delivering COVID-19 testing and health interventions to Latinx communities in Oregon. She collaborates with local, national, and international colleagues to conduct this research, including colleagues at the University of Oregon (Drs. Beth Stormshak, Bill Cresko, Brendan Bohannan, Camille Cioffi, Maria Schweer-Collins, Nichole Kelly), and external colleagues at Penn State (Dr. Jenae Neiderhiser), George Washington University (Dr. Jody Ganiban), the University of California, Riverside (Dr. Misaki Natsuaki), and the University of Cambridge (Dr. Gordon Harold), as well as numerous students, postdocs, and research associates.