Dennis D. Embry has a Ph.D. in child and
developmental psychology and the President/CEO of PAXIS Institute in Tucson, Arizona.
PAXIS Institute has been founded to encourage the extensive collaboration between science
and practice of prevention in the United States and internationally.
Dr. Embry has an international reputation in the area of designing, testing and
disseminating effective large-scale educational campaigns to increase school and community
safety, child safety, family well-being and health. Those research projects have been
contracted and/or funded by such organizations as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, U.S. Office of Education, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, The Moerk
Company Foundation, the W.T. Grant Foundation, DuPont, IBM and grants from a number of
other companies, non-profit foundations, and foreign governments—particularly as a
National Research Advisory Council Senior Fellow in New Zealand.
The hallmark of his work has been careful behavioral assessment of changes induced
in the everyday behavior of families, teachers and children as a result of parent,
school-based and child-training materials. Another hallmark of his work has been a
creative synthesis of diverse bodies of scientific findings into practical, logical action
as well as testable theory. For example in the area of injury control and violence
prevention, his theoretical papers on cognitive-imitative-social competencies (CIS,
pronounced, "kiss") led to the creation of only one of two randomized control
group studies showing positive results on youth violence. Fuller results of this
continuing research and development project (PeaceBuilders®) are in revision for
publication, and some have already been published in the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine. Dr. Embry’s work has reached hundreds of thousands of children through
such vehicles as the Safe Playing Program, the Deployment and Reunion Series for the Gulf
War and Somalia, PeaceBuilders®, and PAX Leaders.
Dr. Embry has been a consultant for a number of governments and agencies
internationally—the Federal Republic of Germany, federal and state governments in
Australia, New Zealand and Honduras. In the United States, Dr. Embry has consulted with
numerous projects and programs, including Children's Television Workshop ("Sesame
Street").
Based on Dr. Embry's experience as a faculty member at the University of Kansas,
at the Bureau of Child Research and the Department of Human Development, he developed the
desire to integrate his academic research experience, clinical experience, and health
promotion/marketing experience. The result was the establishment of Quality Time, Inc.,
designed to help companies and organizations with health promotion/accident prevention
campaigns and professional services marketing. That company became Heartsprings, Inc.
Prior program development users of Dr. Embry’s work include: the Consumer
Product Safety Commission, McDonald's affiliates, Hallmark Cards Company Foundation,
Psychiatric Institutes of America, Century HealthCare, KennerParker Toys, the Health Care
Corporation of America, Vanderbilt University, Columbia University, the Federal Republic
of Germany, the U.S. Academy for Educational Development, the Federal Government of
Australia, the Pentagon, the USO, the American Psychological Association, the Packard
Foundation, various city and state governments, school districts throughout the United
States. Additionally, Dr. Embry has helped develop community health promotion campaigns
with various network affiliates.
Dr. Embry has published peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters. He is an
author of a number of books, a weekly newspaper column, magazine articles and a frequent
public speaker. His work has been publicized in major national media: the Today Show,
Good Morning America, Life Magazine, People Magazine, US News and
World Report, LA Times, Washington Post and various wire services.
Many of his works are available in the PAXIS
Electronic Library.
Dr. Embry is active in community affairs—sitting on the Mayor's Task Force on
Children's Mental Health, the Children’s Museum, FutureWave in Santa Fe, a member of
a number of community service boards and an active member of St. Francis in the Foothills
church in Tucson, where he teaches Sunday School.
