{"id":86756,"date":"2026-01-27T12:29:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=profile&#038;p=86756"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:01:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:01:53","slug":"laren-morton","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/laren-morton\/","title":{"rendered":"LaRen Morton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>LaRen Morton, PhD, is a research scientist at BU Wheelock\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/centers-institutes\/center-on-the-ecology-of-early-development-ceed\/\">Center on the Ecology of Early Development (CEED)<\/a> where she contributes to research projects that support the healthy development and well-being of Black children and their families. A skilled social science researcher, Dr. Morton is passionate about connecting research, policy, and practice to improve educational and developmental outcomes for children. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches, Dr. Morton\u2019s research explores how school, home, neighborhood, and broader sociopolitical factors shape children\u2019s academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Dr. Morton earned her PhD in human development and family science from the University of Georgia, where she also completed a certificate in quantitative research methods. Prior to joining BU Wheelock, she was a Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)\/American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science &amp; Technology Executive Branch Fellow at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her work at OPRE spanned across Early Head Start\/Head Start, child care, coordinated services, and workforce development. Throughout her career, Dr. Morton has managed research labs, supported research studies on child development and academic achievement, and translated data into insights that inform programs and policy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25648,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/86756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25648"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/86756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86771,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/86756\/revisions\/86771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}