Rufaro Chitiyo holds a Ph.D. in Exceptional Learning. She specialized in Young Children and Families and her research areas of interest include child abuse and neglect and other types of family violence that affect young children. She is also interested in how individuals bounce back from adversity and how professionals take care of themselves in order to thrive personally and professionally. Rufaro is currently an assistant professor of human development in the School of Human Ecology at Tennessee Technological University. She teaches family violence across the lifespan, cultural competence, research methods, middle childhood and adolescent development, developing professional resilience, social policy for children and families, family stress management, advanced applications of counseling techniques, and normative and catastrophic issues in families.