David Osher

Vice-President, American Institute for Research


David Osher is Vice President and Institute Fellow at the American Institutes for Research. Osher’s expertise includes social and emotional learning, school climate and conditions for learning, school discipline and safety, school and community mental health services and interventions, culturally responsive approaches, collaboration, implementation science, and the science of learning and development. He has led many impact, implementation and descriptive studies and systematic reviews in these areas and has chaired expert panels regarding early warning signs, school safety, implementation science, and prevention. Osher is Principal Investigator of the National Center on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments, The National Resource Center on Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, and the National Evaluation and the Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent, or at Risk. Osher serves on numerous expert panels and editorial boards and has authored or co-authored over 250 books, monographs, chapters, articles, and reports and 160 peer reviewed papers and invitational presentations. Osher’s recent publication include School Climate and Social and Emotional Learning: The Integration of Two Approaches; Drivers of Human Development: How Relationships and Context Shape Learning and Development; Malleability, Plasticity, and Individuality: How Children Learn and Develop in Context; and Advancing the science and practice of social and emotional learning: Looking back and moving forward. Osher received his A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. from Columbia University and has served as Dean of two professional schools of human services and of a liberal arts college.