Darlene DeMarie

Dr. Darlene DeMarie, Professor

October 30, 2018

Dr. Darlene DeMarie is a College of Education faculty member, and in February 2014, she was named USF’s Fulbright Faculty Advisor. Under her leadership, USF has been a top producer of faculty Fulbright Scholars every year. In fact, for 2016 and 2018, USF was the number one producer of faculty Fulbright Scholars of all research universities. Because of her efforts, Dr. DeMarie received USF’s Global Achievement Award for Outstanding System Leadership in 2017.

Dr. DeMarie's relationship with Fulbright started in 2007 when she was awarded the Fulbright CORE Scholar Award at the University of Limpopo in South Africa. Her time as a Fulbright Scholar resulted in the co-creation of the University of Limpopo’s Child Development Center. She visited the center two additional times while on sabbatical and learned that many alumni children were in the top 10 for reading, math, and overall achievement in grades 1-7 at five different schools.

After revisiting the photographs of these children playing when 2- to 6-years-old, she discovered the benefits of play for children’s development. This is the subject of a book she is writing. The director/teacher of the center will visit USF in November 2018 and they will present at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Conference in Washington DC. 

Dr. DeMarie serves on the American Psychological Association’s Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. Under her co-leadership, the group produced a brochure to help parents to select high-quality child care based on psychological research about relationships.