Previously, Whitehurst was Leading Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics, and Chairman of the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He also has served on the faculty of the University of New South Wales in Australia and was Academic Vice President of the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit. He has been editor-in-chief of two leading journals in his field, The Merrill-Palmer Quarterly and Developmental Review.

Whitehurst has published more than 100 scholarly papers on language and pre-reading development in preschool children. His research projects have been funded by a variety of federal research agencies and nonprofit foundations. One of the goals of his work has been to develop techniques and materials that can be used by parents and teachers to enhance children's readiness for school. One of those techniques, dialogic reading, is a widely used and empirically validated method of shared picture book reading that enhances children's language development. Another goal of his work has been to determine predictors from the preschool period of reading achievement in elementary school; these efforts have influenced curriculum for Head Start and pre-K programs, and have led to the development of screening instruments to identify children with low levels of reading readiness. He has collaborated extensively with public and nonprofit agencies to translate research findings into programs that work for children and families.

Whitehurst was born and reared in Washington, North Carolina. He was educated in the public schools of Washington, received his undergraduate degree at East Carolina University, and obtained a Ph.D. in experimental child psychology in 1970 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is married with two children.

Last modified April 9, 2002 (jer)