About Me (Dr. Renee Carrico)

I'm an Assistant Professor in my fifth year in the Psychology Department at SMC. I'm a native Midwesterner, having grown up in Wisconsin and Illinois, and a New England transplant since my husband and I moved to Massachusetts in 1995. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 1994 with a B.S. in Psychology. While in school at UIUC, I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Renee Baillargeon. In those three and a half years in the lab, I discovered a deep love for the process of scientific research, an appreciation for the challenges and delights of working with infants, and a fascination with how the human mind changes through development.

I spent a few years off between undergrad and grad school (let's just say I'm a wicked typist, I can efficiently answer 12 phone lines in tandem, and I can manage a classroom of 15 rambunctious toddlers), before settling down in Massachusetts. I attended graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, under the advisement of Dr. Neil Berthier, earning my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 2005. At UMass, my research focused on cognitive and perceptual-motor development in infancy.

I've been at Saint Michael's since Fall 2004. I teach Research Methods, Child Development, the Thinking Child, and a senior seminar on Children and Media. My current projects in the lab investigate how toddlers manage the attentional demands of solving more than one difficult motor or cognitive problem simultaneously. In addition to teaching and research, I serve on the advisory board for the SMC Early Learning Center (on-campus daycare), and as Chair for the Institutional Review Board (a committee which reviews and approves all research involving human participants).

I live in a beautiful rural neighborhood (you don’t have to go far in VT to find one of those) with two fabulous guys – my husband Tony and our 2 ½ year old son Desmond – in a house that we have been renovating/reconstructing for the past 3 years (I hope one day to be able to report to you that it’s actually finished, but don’t hold your breath). In my spare time I’m equal parts outdoorsy nature lover (hiking, gardening), and indoor bookish tech geek (movies, books, internet), but in reality these days I spend more time on the floor playing with Legos and toy trains. Life is good!

-rlc