Monica Oxford

Kathryn Barnard Endowed Professor for Infant Mental Health
Executive Director, Barnard Center for Infant Mental Health and Development
Director, Parent-Child Relationship Programs

Monica Oxford, Ph.D., is a Research Professor in the Department of Family and Child Nursing and serves as the Executive Director of the Barnard Center for Infant Mental Health and Development and the Director of Parent-Child Relationship Programs. Dr. Oxford’s research centers on the quality of parent-child relationships from birth to age five and how these dyadic interactions impact child developmental outcomes, particularly for vulnerable families in challenging environments.

Her research explores how contextual factors, parenting practices, and child characteristics influence developmental outcomes and how intervention services can enhance parent and child well-being. As Director of the Barnard Center, Dr. Oxford also trains providers—including home visitors, nurses, social workers, and childcare professionals—on infant and early childhood mental health.

Dr. Oxford is the principal investigator of six NIH R01 grants. Five of these grants focus on evaluating the impact of the relationship-based intervention program, Promoting First Relationships®, within diverse populations: parents involved with child protective services, under-resourced families in a primary care setting, Indigenous North American families in rural settings, and parents recently reunified with their children after foster care placements. The fifth grant investigates the interaction between family, school, child, and contextual risks such as poverty and their effects on early child developmental outcomes. Additionally, Dr. Oxford is a co-principal investigator on three NIH-funded grants that test the effectiveness of relationship-based home-visiting interventions.