About the Founder
Dr. Annette Urso Rickel (1941-2021) was a psychotherapist and faculty-member of Cornell Medical College. She served as Education Programs Officer for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. There she was responsible for the Fund’s Fellowship Program for Students of Color as well as grantmaking for other educational priorities. Before assuming this position, she was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University.
Throughout her career, she worked with children and families, and directed research on early interventions. Her work was funded by the National Institutes of Health as well as the MacArthur and Kellogg foundations. In 1992, she was awarded a Senior Congressional Fellowship and served as a member of the public policy staff of U.S. Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr. At the same time, she was appointed to President Clinton’s Task Force for National Health Care Reform.
Prior to her experience in Washington D.C., Dr. Rickel was a professor in Michigan, and the director of two long-term projects involving the Detroit public school system—one focusing on interventions with young children and the other on teenage parenting. She held visiting professor appointments at Princeton University and Columbia University, and was Board Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., Reading is Fundamental, the Children’s Center and the Women’s Forum. She published eight books and numerous articles in scientific journals.