Dr. Claire D. Coles

Dr. Claire D. Coles is a leading researcher and has contributed greatly to studies on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and research on teratogenic exposures during pregnancy. NOFAS honors Dr. Coles for her many years of continued research and longstanding commitment to eliminating alcohol related birth defects. Dr. Coles established the Fetal Alcohol Center at the Marcus Institute and continues to serve as its Director. The Marcus Institute is an affiliate of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Coles is also Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Coles has been an active member of several task forces, advisory committees and serves as an advisor and consultant to several non-profits and other organizations dealing with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, developmental disabilities and alcohol related health studies. She was one of the founding members of the National Task Force on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Effects and was also a member of the Advisory Committee, National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2001. She was a member of the 1999-2001 FAS Work Group, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, and the Committee to Study Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science between 1994 and1996.

Dr. Coles was awarded the Thomas J. Asher Award for the Prevention of Developmental Disabilities by the Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities in 2001. Her research focuses on developmental outcomes of teratogenic exposures, from infancy through adulthood. She has also focused on both the direct neurobehavioral effects of drugs of abuse and the interaction of these effects with postnatal environment in producing developmental psychopathology.

She is currently a guest editor for a special edition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology focusing on children of substance abusers. In Atlanta, Dr. Coles participates in the FAS Task Force, formerly sponsored by the March of Dimes, and was a member of the Professional Advisory Council, Mission New Hope: A Substance Abuse Coalition for Metro Atlanta, established in 1992. Dr. Coles also is the Director of the Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development Laboratory at Emory Psychiatry, a laboratory that conducts research on developmental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure.

NOFAS is extremely pleased to enshrine Dr. Claire Coles in the FASD Hall of Fame. Her contributions to the field are invaluable.

For details on the Marcus Institute, please visit: www.marcus.org/, for further information about alcohol exposure studies and about the effects of maternal substance abuse and alcohol in pregnancy, please visit: www.emory.edu/MSACD.