Virginia Slaughter is Professor and Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia.  She earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College (New York) in 1985 and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994.  She became a lecturer at the University of Queensland in 1996.  She is the Founding Director of the Early Cognitive Development Centre within the School of Psychology.

Virginia’s research focuses on social and cognitive development in infants and young children.  She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, three edited volumes and a first-year Psychology textbook.  She serves as an Associate Editor for Child Development and serve is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, Frontiers in Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Development.  She is the recipient of several teaching awards, including the University of Queensland Teaching Excellence Award (1999) and an Australian Award for University Teaching (in the category Teaching Large First Year Classes; 2005).