Expert Directory
Samuel Handwerger, MA
Accounting Lecturer
University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of BusinessTax Policy/Reform, Individual Taxes, business taxes, IRS Policy
Sam Handwerger, CPA, is a full-time Lecturer in the department, and is a University of Maryland undergraduate accounting alumnus. He also holds a Master of Science in Taxation degree from the University of Baltimore. Handwerger was a Senior Tax Researcher with EY in New York City and later led the Tax Planning and Preparation Departments of the CPA firm Handwerger, Cardegna, Funkhouser & Lurman. In 1996, he was awarded the Governor’s Volunteer of the year award in the State of Maryland for financial and management advisement to non-profit organizations. Before joining the Smith School on a full-time basis, Handwerger held adjunct positions at the Johns Hopkins University School of Business and the University of Baltimore Law School. Handwerger's professional accomplishments includes giving professional expert testimony in various legal cases involving accounting and tax issues as well as for the now landmark decision in Maryland Tax Court, Har Sinai West v. Comptroller. Further, in 2013 Handwerger orchestrated a "no-change" IRS audit in Tax Court involving a $30.0 million assessment, Docket 28353-12.
David Kass, PhD
Clinical Professor of Finance
University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of BusinessHealth Economics, Stock Market, Warren Buffett, Interest Rates, Corporate Profits , Mergers & Acquisitions, IPO's, International Trade, Corporate Governance, Inflation, Unemployment, Tax Policy, Investments, Buybacks
Dr. David Kass has published articles in corporate finance, industrial organization, and health economics. He currently teaches Advanced Financial Management and Business Finance, and is the Faculty Champion for the Sophomore Finance Fellows. Prior to joining the faculty of the Smith School in 2004, he held senior positions with the Federal Government (Federal Trade Commission, General Accounting Office, Department of Defense, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis). Dr. Kass has recently appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, PBS Nightly Business Report, Maryland Public Television, Business News Network TV (Canada), FOX TV, Bloomberg Radio, Wharton Business Radio, KCBS Radio, American Public Media's Marketplace Radio, and WYPR Radio (Baltimore), and has been quoted on numerous occasions by The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, The New York Times and The Washington Post, where he has primarily discussed Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, the economy, and the stock market. He has also launched a Smith School “Warren Buffett” blog. Dr. Kass has accompanied MBA students on trips to Omaha for private meetings with Warren Buffett, and Finance Fellows to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meetings. He was an officer of the Harvard Business School Club of Washington, DC, and is a member of the investment and budget committees of a local nonprofit organization. Dr. Kass received a Smith School "Top 15% Teaching Award" for 2009-2010, a "Distinguished Teaching Award (Top 10%)" for 2014-2015, and the prestigious "Krowe Teaching Award” for 2015 and 2019.
Clifford Rossi, PhD
Professor of the Practice & Executive-in-Residence
University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of BusinessMarkets, Banking policy, Housing Policy, General Economy Issues, Risk Management, Derivatives Markets
Dr. Clifford Rossi is an Executive-in-Residence and Professor of the Practice at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. Prior to entering academia, Rossi had nearly 25 years’ experience in banking and government, having held senior executive roles in risk management at several of the largest financial services companies. His most recent position was Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer for Citigroup’s Consumer Lending Group where he was responsible for overseeing the risk of a $300+B global portfolio of mortgage, home equity, student loans and auto loans with 700 employees under his direction. While there he was intimately involved in Citi’s TARP and stress test activities. He also served as Chief Credit Officer at Washington Mutual (WaMu) and as Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer at Countrywide Bank. Previous to these assignments, Rossi held senior risk management positions at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He started his career during the thrift crisis at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Domestic Finance and later at the Office of Thrift Supervision working on key policy issues affecting depositories. Rossi was also an adjunct professor in the Finance Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business for eight years and has numerous academic and nonacademic articles on banking industry topics. Rossi is frequently quoted on financial policy issues in major newspapers and has appeared on such programs as C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and CNN’s Situation Room. He is currently writing a book, Fundamentals of Risk Management for John Wiley & Sons, Inc. His policy and research interests include GSE reform, housing finance reform , bank capital issues and implications of Dodd-Frank on banking.
Neta Moye, PhD
Clinical Professor of Leadership | Assistant Dean and Executive Director of the Office of Career Services
University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of BusinessLeadership, Workplace Adaptability, Career Strategy
Dr. Moye has over 25 years of experience in the field of human resources with particular expertise in helping individuals develop leader skills. She has spent the last 10 years focused on the practice of leadership development across academic, industry, and government settings. She has experience both designing and delivering leadership development solutions across the full range of development activities including formal classroom curricula, experiential development activities, executive coaching, and leader assessments and debriefs. Dr. Moye’s background has given her broad exposure to the practice of leadership development. As a former faculty member of Vanderbilt University, Neta was the founding faculty director for Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management Leadership Development program; a program ranked among the top 10 in the world by BusinessWeek rankings. She also supported Executive Education at Vanderbilt, helping to build and deliver innovative leadership development programming for corporate clients. As a consultant with PDRI, A CEB Company, she led the design and development of cutting edge products and services to help clients build their next generation of leaders in both government agencies and private sector corporations. The particular leadership development challenge that Dr. Moye is focused on at the moment is how to help leaders leverage the developmental power of day-to-day experiences, and how to more fully integrate experiential learning into formal leadership development programs. This includes exploring how to increase a leader’s learning agility; that is, their willingness and ability to learn from experience. Dr. Moye’s involvement in leadership development also includes being an award winning instructor; she has designed and delivered courses to thousands of individuals spanning private and public sector, all levels of leaders, and both non-degree and degree students within three top-25 MBA programs. Most recently, in her work with the Department of Defense, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, Dr. Moye has designed and delivered workshops to global audiences of staff and managers on the topics of adaptability, conversations about performance, and collaborating to improve performance.
Valerie Crabtree, PhD
Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty Chief, Psychosocial Services
St. Jude Children's Research HospitalSleep disruptions, Psychology, Pediatric Oncology, Cancer Survivors, Fatigue, Sleepiness
Crabtree arrived at St. Jude in 2007 as a clinical psychologist and joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology in 2010 as director of Clinical Services and Training. In her new role as chief of Psychosocial Services, Crabtree oversees numerous departments and clinics that address the psychosocial needs of St. Jude patients and families, including the Psychology Clinic, Child Life Services, the St. Jude School Program, Social Work, Spiritual Care, the Resilience Center, and the Transition Oncology Program. In addition to her clinical and administrative work, Crabtree is a faculty member in the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and she conducts research on sleep and fatigue in children with cancer. Her work includes a focus on interventions to promote alertness and energy level in children undergoing treatment for cancer and in brain tumor survivors, particularly those who have been treated for craniopharyngioma. In 2015, Crabtree and her co-author, Lisa Meltzer, Ph.D., published “Pediatric Sleep Problems: A Clinician’s Guide to Behavioral Interventions.” Crabtree holds an undergraduate degree from Trinity University and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in counseling psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi. Following graduate school, she completed her internship in clinical child/pediatric psychology and fellowships in pediatric psychology and behavioral sleep medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, after which she became certified in behavioral sleep medicine.
Pamela Davis-Kean, PhD
Professor of Psychology Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research Associate Director of the Michigan Institute for Data Science
University of MichiganSocial Work and Psychology, Education and Psychology, Cognition, Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Quantitative Methods, Family
Dr. Davis-Kean is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan where her research focuses on the various pathways that the socio-economic status (SES) of parents relates to the cognitive/achievement outcomes (particularly mathematics) of their children. Her primary focus is on parental educational attainment and how it can influence the development of the home environment throughout childhood, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood. Davis-Kean is also a Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research where she is the Program Director of the Population, Neurodevelopment, and Genetics (PNG) program. This collaboration examines the complex transactions of brain, biology, and behavior as children and families develop across time. She is interested in how both the micro (brain and biology) and macro (family and socioeconomic conditions) aspects of development relate to cognitive changes in children across the lifespan.
Andrea S. Boyles, Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies
Tulane UniversityRace, Gender, Black citizen-police conflict, racial-spatial politics, Containment
Author of books, You Can’t Stop the Revolution: Community Disorder and Social Ties in Post-Ferguson America (UC Press 2019) and Race, Place, and Suburban Policing: Too Close for Comfort (UC Press 2015). As a feminist, race scholar, and ethnographer, her work accounts for social inequality and (in)justice regarding, but not limited to the following: race; the intersection of race, gender, and class; Black citizen-police conflict; crime; racial-spatial politics, segregation, and containment; poverty; social ties; and resistance. She has served in various capacities in academia, as well as, worked with corporations and organizations such as American Airlines, Amnesty International, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) on matters pertaining to race and discrimination. She has also served as a delegate to the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) and presently, as member and secretary of the Council for Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS). Additionally, she previously taught within the Missouri prison system and presented research on the effects of incarcerated parents on children. She holds a B.A. in English and M.A. in Sociology from Lincoln University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Kansas State University with concentrations in Gender and Criminology.
Rachel Issaka, MD
Assistant Professor, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Clinical Research Division
Fred Hutchinson Cancer CenterColon Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Health Disparities, Racial Disparities, Gastroenterology, Digestive Disease, structural racism
Dr. Rachel Issaka is a gastroenterologist and clinical researcher focused on decreasing the mortality associated with colorectal cancer, with a special focus on medically underserved populations. Dr. Issaka’s research includes identifying, measuring and recommending new and improved approaches to screening and follow-up both in Seattle and across the U.S. The roots of Dr. Issaka’s research lie in a tale of two clinics. The first was at Northwestern University’s McGaw Medical Center, a few blocks from Chicago’s glittering “Magnificent Mile” commercial district. The second was at a federally qualified health center on the city’s South Side, several miles and another world away. Issaka worked at both clinics early in her medical career. She soon noticed a striking difference between the two. Her mostly white, middle- to upper-class patients at Northwestern faithfully followed whatever the doctor ordered. That included getting screened for colorectal cancer, the second-deadliest cancer in the U.S. But it was different on the South Side. Her mostly African-American and Latino patients there, when encouraged to schedule screening for colorectal cancer, often declined. Why? Issaka has never stopped asking why disparities exist and how to achieve health equity in colorectal cancer screening. The questions aren’t academic. Screening can prevent colorectal cancer by detecting and simultaneously removing precancerous polyps, small lesions that over time can grow and become cancerous. But despite clear evidence that screening for colorectal cancer saves lives, rates aren’t where they should be. The screening goal for the U.S. population, according to the American Cancer Society and National Colorectal Cancer Round Table, is 80 percent. The actual rate is about 63 percent across all populations, with even lower rates among racial minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. Closing that gap, Issaka noted, could save 200,000 lives over the next 20 years. And it could lessen the socioeconomic inequalities that linger — or stubbornly grow — in cancer care and mortality. “Screening is a way to not only prevent disease but reduce racial and economic disparities,” said Issaka, who is on the faculty of the Hutch’s Clinical Research Division and the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, which is based in the Public Health Sciences Division. “We need to close that gap so that every citizen can benefit from the advances in cancer care and prevention.”
Ophthalmology, ocular oncology, Vitreoretinal Surgery, Retinal and vitreous diseases
Timothy G. Murray, MD, MBA, is the President of the Foundation of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS), the Immediate Past President of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) and the Founding Director/CEO of Ocular Oncology and Retina of Miami Florida (MOOR). After 21 years at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Dr. Murray is Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology and Radiation Oncology, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Murray’s primary focus is in ocular oncology and retinal disease. He has been involved in the evaluation of novel treatment approaches for ocular melanoma, retinoblastoma, vascular tumors and has utilized basic and translational laboratory studies to enhance understanding of the molecular and pathogenetic mechanisms for tumor development. Dr. Murray’s interest in new evaluation and treatment technologies has been pivotal in the marked advancements in melanoma and retinoblastoma management in the United States and internationally. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the combined BA/MD program, Dr. Murray completed his residency and chief residency at the University of California, San Francisco and fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Eye Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin. He graduated with a Masters in Business Administration with Health Care focus in 2005. Dr. Murray has published over 300 peer reviewed articles and chapters in the field of vitreoretinal surgery and ocular oncology. He has been recognized with Honor and Senior Honor awards by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), the Retina Society, the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS), and the International Society of Ocular Oncologists (ISOO). He is active on multiple editorial boards and as an active editor and peer reviewer for Lasers in Medicine, Retina, Ophthalmology, Archives of Ophthalmology, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Retinal Physician and Retina Today. Dr. Murray is recognized in Top Doctors in America, Top Doctors in Florida, and Top Cancer Doctors in America. He is an Associate Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology, Executive Committee member of the Retina Society, and a member of the Macula Society, Club Jules Gonin and a Fellow of ARVO and ABO.
Ophthalmology, Macular Degeneration, Vitreoretinal Surgery, Retinal and vitreous diseases
Carl Awh, MD (pronounced "Oh") is the President of the Foundation of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) and Immediate Past President of ASRS. Dr. Awh is an internationally recognized clinician, surgeon and educator. He completed a fellowship in Vitreoretinal Surgery and Research at the Duke University Eye Center with Dr. Robert Machemer, the "father of modern vitreous surgery." Dr. Awh began his career as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University, where he was Director of the Retina Service at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and the founding co-director of the Johns Hopkins Microsurgery Advanced Design Laboratory. In 1994 he moved to Nashville to join Tennessee Retina (then Retina Vitreous Associates). Dr. Awh’s special interests include macular surgery, macular degeneration, and the development of surgical devices and techniques. He is an active investigator in industry-sponsored and National Eye Institute-sponsored clinical trials, holds twelve U.S. patents for retinal surgical devices and treatments, and has designed dozens of instruments in widespread use by vitreoretinal surgeons. Dr. Awh has been named one of the Best Doctors in America every year since 2007 and is the recipient of Honor Awards from both the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Retina Specialists. In 2004, he received the Senior Honor Award of the American Society of Retina Specialists. In 2015, he received the Senior Achievement Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is an Associate Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and is the founding Director of the Retina Fellows' Forum, an annual national educational meeting for vitreoretinal specialists-in-training. Dr. Awh was inducted as an inaugural member of the Retina Hall of Fame in 2017.
Linda Charmaraman, PhD
Senior Research Scientist; Director, Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab
Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Womenteen social media use, youth development , Cyberbullying, Gaming, social media and anxiety, Social Media
Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women and project director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. She conducts research funded by a 3-year National Institutes of Health grant to follow middle school students and their parents longitudinally in order to determine longer-term health and wellbeing effects due to early smartphone use, social media use, and gaming. One of the goals of her project is not only to prevent negative health effects of social media use but also to empower youth to use social media to increase connections with other people by giving and receiving social and emotional support through social media and finding ways to be more civically engaged. Charmaraman has conducted research and evaluation on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, William T. Grant Foundation, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Kellogg Foundation, Schott Foundation for Public Education, United Way, Borghesani Community Foundation, and AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. Charmaraman was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Asian American Psychology at Wellesley College and has guest lectured at Boston College and Northeastern University. Mentoring undergraduate and graduate students has always been a passion of hers, evidenced by her dedication to training, collaborating, presenting, and publishing academic papers with students from multiple institutions. Throughout her doctoral program, she was the coordinator of graduate student diversity recruitment in her department and an appointed student delegate of the Equity Committee.
Gail Cruise Roberson, BA
Co-Director, National SEED Project
Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for WomenOppression, Privilege, Diversity, Public Education, Adult Education
The National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) partners with schools, organizations, and communities to develop leaders who guide their peers in conversational communities to drive personal, organizational, and societal change toward social justice. As co-director of the National SEED Project, Gail Cruise-Roberson supports New York City-area educators and community leaders who run their own year-long, school-based SEED seminars in order to drive social change. Throughout her career, Cruise-Roberson has worked in public education reform and adult education in New York City, Newark, NJ, and Chicago, Il. In 1999, Cruise-Roberson began working to train diversity facilitators -- teachers as well as high school students and parents -- to lead their own year-long seminars with the Minnesota Inclusiveness Project. In 2008, she joined the staff at the National SEED Project and co-facilitated SEED seminars in California. She has a B.A. in English and graduate work in communications from Queens College (CUNY), with a focus on small group communication.
Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, MA, CAGS, MRC
Director, Open Circle
Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Womenyouth development , Equity, emotional learning
Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, M.A., became the director of Open Circle in 2017. She initially joined Open Circle in 2013, where she led the organization’s teacher development programming for four years, preparing educators to implement and integrate the Open Circle Curriculum in their classrooms. In that role, she delivered training and coaching to teachers, administrators, and support staff while upholding the integrity, quality, and fidelity of all elements of Open Circle’s programming. Drummond-Forrester is also a facilitator with the National SEED Project, a program of the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), and has led WCW community members in discussions around various topics surrounding equity and diversity. Prior to joining Open Circle, Drummond-Forrester was a co-founder and director of wellness at a Boston charter school and director of an award-winning, educationally-based reentry program at Suffolk County House of Correction. Her professional experiences have fueled her passion for social and emotional learning (SEL), equity, and youth development, affording her unique insight into the importance of SEL in the lives of children and the adults who care for them. Drummond-Forrester is attuned to the changing landscape of education and, in her new role with Open Circle, intends to work collaboratively with her colleagues to provide curricula, professional development, and implementation support that keeps the wellbeing of students at the center while meeting the needs of schools and educators.
Tracy R.G. Gladstone, PhD
Senior Research Scientist and Associate Director
Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for WomenMental Health, Psychology, Depression
Tracy R. G. Gladstone, Ph.D., is an associate director and senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women as well as the inaugural director of the Robert S. and Grace W. Stone Primary Prevention Initiatives, which aims to research, develop, and evaluate programs to prevent the onset of depression and other mental health concerns in children and adolescents. She is also an assistant in psychology at Boston Children’s Hospital, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, and a research scientist at Judge Baker Children’s Center. At the Wellesley Centers for Women, Gladstone is evaluating an internet-based depression prevention intervention for at-risk adolescents in a multi-site, federally funded trial. As a senior member of the Baer Prevention Initiatives Dissemination Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, she is working on developing and disseminating web-based educational resources for clinicians and for parents who are concerned about depression. She has served as a senior member of the Preventive Intervention Project research team at Judge Baker Children’s Center, which compares two family-based prevention programs for early adolescents at risk for depression because they have a parent with a depressive disorder. She also has developed and piloted a cognitive-behavioral group intervention for women who are recovering from fistula repair surgery in Ethiopia. Gladstone holds a health service provider psychologist license in Massachusetts and has been trained in evidence-based clinical prevention and intervention protocols. She has conducted prevention-oriented work with children and families, and she has served as a clinical supervisor for researchers working with depressed families, as well as for clinical trainees. She has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed manuscripts reporting the results of her research endeavors and has taken an active role in teaching about depression, prevention, and intervention in local, national, and international settings.
Non-traditional students, anti-poverty, Sociology, Student Parent, Higher Education, Higher Education (First Generation)
Autumn Green, Ph.D., is an applied sociologist and nationally recognized scholar in higher education and anti-poverty programs. Her research and advocacy focus on college access and success for low-income, first-generation, and non-traditional students, especially student parents. As a research scientist at WCW, Dr. Green is finalizing multiple publication projects based on her research on college access and success for student parents and their children, particularly a book-length manuscript (with Amanda Freeman, University of Hartford) tentatively titled Low-Income Parents in Higher Education, with the support of a Russell Sage Foundation Presidential Award; she is also working on several article-length manuscripts. Additionally, Dr. Green is developing a pilot and demonstration project proposal for, The Two-Generation Classroom, offering a new approach to postsecondary teaching & learning. Green has presented across the country on two-generational anti-poverty approaches. Most recently, she served as principal investigator on major grants through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Ascend at the Aspen Institute, and the U.S. Department of Education as director of National Replication for the Keys to Degrees Program, founding director of the National Center for Student Parent Programs, and assistant professor of Sociology at Endicott College. Green earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology at Boston College, where she was awarded a nationally competitive American Dissertation Fellowship by the AAUW, as well as multiple competitive awards. She also holds an M.Ed. in Community, Arts and Education from Lesley University, and completed her undergraduate degrees at the University of Oregon and Chemeketa Community College.
Adolescent Development, Sexual Health, Risk-taking, Ethnic Identity, Racial
Jennifer M. Grossman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and a former National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) postdoctoral research fellow at WCW. Her research uses quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate adolescent development, sexual health, and risk-taking, with an emphasis on family communication about sex and relationships, and contexts of teens’ environment and identities, such as gender, race, and ethnicity. Grossman initially joined WCW in August 2006 as a NICHD postdoctoral research fellow. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College, her M.A. in counseling at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Boston College in 2005. In addition to her research work, Grossman is a licensed psychologist. She completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital, working primarily with children and adolescents. Her clinical experiences inform her research work and enhance her commitment to addressing health inequities through research, program development, and systemic change in support of healthy youth development. Grossman is currently principal investigator of an R21 award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development -- Adolescent Communication with Family and Reproductive Health, which includes the first comprehensive assessment of teens’ sexuality communication with extended family and its associations with sexual behavior as well as an exploration of extended family approaches to talking with teens about sex. Grossman is also principal investigator of an R03 award from the National Institutes of Child and Human Development -- Risk Behaviors Among Offspring of Teen Parents: Effects of Parenting on the Next Generation, which addresses the potential of maternal and paternal parenting to reduce the high risk of early sex and teen pregnancy for offspring of teen parents. She recently completed a project funded by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM) – the Formative Evaluation of Planned Parenthood Family Communication App, which assessed the preliminary effectiveness of a mobile website for parents of youth enrolled in PPLM’s middle school curriculum, Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works. Findings showed that parents and teens reported significantly more talk with teens about relationships and sexuality after exposure to Get Real family activities than before participating in the program. Parents described the online activities as useful in talking with their teens about sexuality and relationships and found the activities helped bring up new conversation topics about teens’ health. Grossman’s current research focuses on adolescent sexual risk and prevention, evaluation of preventive programs, teens’ communication with parents and extended family about sex and relationships, and how that communication influences teen sexual attitudes and behavior.
Georgia Hall, PhD
Associate Director; Director, National Institute on Out-of-School Time
Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Womenyouth development , out-of-school time, Physical Activity, Healthy Eating
Georgia Hall, Ph.D., is director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women. Hall specializes in research and evaluation on youth development programs, settings, and learning experiences. Her work has focused extensively on strategies to improve out-of-school time program quality along with investigations of summer learning programs and STEM initiatives for girls. Hall serves as principal investigator on several multi-year research projects and is a frequent presenter at national conferences, seminars, and meetings. Hall’s work has included management of many types of large research and technical assistance projects including supervising logistics, development and execution of fieldwork and data collection systems, data processing, analysis, and reporting, and overall communication and collaboration with project partners and funders.
Layli Maparyan, PhD
Katherine Stone Kaufmann '67 Executive Director - Professor of Africana Studies
Wellesley College, Wellesley Centers for Womenwomanist theory, activist methodology, womanism, Social Identities
Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., is the Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. She is best known for her scholarship in the area of womanism and is the author of two groundbreaking texts in the field of womanist studies, The Womanist Reader (Routledge, 2006) and The Womanist Idea (Routledge, 2012); a third book is forthcoming. Maparyan has also published significantly in the areas of adolescent development, social identities, (including biracial/biethnic identity and the intersections of racial/ethnic, sexual, spiritual/religious, and gender identities), Black LGBTQ studies, Hip Hop studies, and history of psychology. Maparyan’s scholar-activist work interweaves threads from the social sciences and the critical disciplines, incorporating basic and applied platforms around a common theme of integrating identities and communities in peaceable, ecologically sound, and self-actualizing ways. Prior to joining WCW, Maparyan was Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and associated faculty of African American Studies at Georgia State University (GSU). While there, she served as inaugural Chair of the University Consortium for Liberia (UCL), a regional collective of Southeastern U.S. institutions with projects in Liberia, West Africa. In 2009, Maparyan was a Contemplative Practice Fellow of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and, in 2010, she served as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Liberia, where she developed a model gender studies curriculum. Before GSU, she was Assistant Professor of Psychology and African American Studies at the University of Georgia (UGA). While at UGA, she co-founded and co-directed the Womanist Studies Consortium, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowships residency site, for which she recruited and supported scholars and interns from the U.S. and around the world and published a journal, The Womanist (later Womanist Theory and Research). Maparyan holds a Ph.D. in Psychology with an emphasis on lifespan human development from Temple University and an M.S. in Psychology with an emphasis on developmental psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. She is a graduate of Spelman College, where she majored in philosophy.
Early Childhood Education, Child Development, early care and education, School Readiness
Wendy Wagner Robeson, Ed.D., is a senior research scientist on the Work, Families, & Children Team. Her work at the Centers is focused on child development (birth to age 8), child care policy, early childhood care and education, and school readiness. Robeson began her career as a middle school language arts, reading, ESL and English teacher in Houston, Texas, after graduating from Boston University with a degree in education, math, and English. After finishing her master’s degree in early childhood education at the University of Houston, Robeson pursued her interest in children’s language development and psycholinguistics at Harvard Graduate School of Education and earned her doctoral degree. In addition, to her research, Robeson has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Robeson’s vast body of work includes the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which sought to determine the relationship between children's early experiences and their developmental outcomes, the Massachusetts Early Care and Education and School Readiness Study and the Ready Educators Quality Improvement Pilot.
Sexual Violence, sexual violence prevention in K-12 schools, gender violence, Sexual Harrasment
Nan Stein, Ed.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women. She has conducted research on sexual harassment/gender violence in K-12 schools and teen dating violence for more than 30 years and co-led the Shifting Boundaries, school-based dating violence prevention program. A former middle school social studies teacher, drug and alcohol counselor, and gender equity specialist with the Massachusetts Department of Education, she has collaborated with teachers’ unions and sexual assault/domestic violence agencies throughout the U.S. Stein has authored many book chapters, law review articles, and academic journal articles as well as commentaries for the mainstream media and the educational press, and often served as an expert witness in Title IX/sex discrimination-sexual harassment lawsuits in K-12 schools heard in federal and state courts. She has been featured in scores of print and broadcast media stories. Stein’s research portfolio has been funded by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Education, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Education Association, the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation, and other private family foundations. With funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Stein has been studying schools to prevent Dating Violence/Harassment (DV/H). The long-term goal of this study is helping prevent dating violence, sexual violence, and sexual harassment by employing the most rigorous methods to evaluate strategies for altering the violence-supportive attitudes and norms of youth. The study evaluates the relative effectiveness of Shifting Boundaries, a multi-level approach to DV/H prevention programming (in terms of knowledge, attitudes, intended behavior, behavior, and emotional safety of youth participants) for middle school students in 55 middle schools in a large urban school district. Stein is also working with the Justice and Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative Team at the Wellesley Centers for Women to document the current landscape (the breadth and differences) of campus approaches to investigations and adjudication of sexual assault. The project will result in guidelines that will assist colleges with assessing their capacity and preparedness to meet new and existing demands for sexual assault response models. Stein holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Wisconsin, a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Antioch College Graduate School of Education, and a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. In 2007, she received the Outstanding Contribution to Education award from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
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