Betty S. Lai is a professor and the author of The Grant Writing Guide and How to Be a Public Scholar (Princeton University Press). She studies child mental health, and she has published over 80 peer reviewed articles on this topic. Her research as a Principal Investigator has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among others. These efforts have been recognized with awards from the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Foundation.