Ilene Sackler Lefcourt established the Sackler Lefcourt Center for Child Development in 1982 and continues to be a pioneer in the fields of infant mental health and parenting. She was an Affiliate Scholar at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and applied psychoanalytic theory to child development and the early parent-child relationship. She is on the faculty of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research Parent-Infant Program and the Weill Cornell Medical Center Infant Psychiatry Program.