Biography

Dr. Noelle Hurd's research agenda has primarily focused on the promotion of healthy development among marginalized adolescents and emerging adults. Specifically, her work has focused on identifying opportunities to build on pre-existing strengths in youths’ lives, such as supportive intergenerational relationships. Increasingly, her work also has focused on opportunities to disrupt systems of oppression. She runs the Promoting Healthy Adolescent Development (PHAD) Lab at the University of Virginia. She is a former William T. Grant Scholar and former Spencer/National Academy of Education Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2015, she was recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. In 2017, she received the Outstanding Professor Award from the UVA Department of Psychology. In 2019 she served as a Public Voices Thought Leadership Fellow. Her research has been funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, and the National Science Foundation.

Website: https://psychology.as.virginia.edu/people/profile/nh3v

Joanna Lee Williams, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. Her scholarship focuses on understanding the role of race and ethnicity in individual and interpersonal contexts and at broader levels of the ecology (e.g., classrooms) during adolescence. This includes research on racial/ethnic identity, racial/ethnic diversity in adolescent friendship networks, and social network equity in diverse middle school classrooms. Dr. Williams is also involved in efforts to translate the science of adolescent development into useful recommendations and practices for parents, educators, and policymakers. Dr. Williams is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee (NASEM) Board of Children, Youth, and Families, and co-Director of the National Scientific Council on Adolescence. She is also a faculty affiliate of Youth-Nex: The UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, and the Center for Parent and Teen Communication.

Twitter: @williamsjoannal

Rebecca M. B. White is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University (ASU). She trained in general studies and American Sign Language at New River Community College (Dublin, VA), in human services at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA), in public health at the University of Arizona (Tucson), and in family and human development at ASU (Tempe). Broadly, Rebecca’s program of research examines family, developmental, and cultural processes within U.S. neighborhood contexts, with particular emphasis on understanding risk and resilience among families and adolescents who experience marginalization. Rebecca has been honored to work in service to a range of initiatives and activities that strive to promote a more just version of the developmental sciences, including, for example, the SRCD webinar on Becoming an Antiracist Society, the SRCD Latinx Caucus, and the SRCD Ethnic and Racial Issues Committee.

Website: https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/398321
Twitter: @RebeccaMBWhite

Robert M. Sellers received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Howard University and his doctorate in personality Psychology from the University of Michigan. He is responsible for overseeing the University’s five-year strategic plan for diversity, equity and inclusion, and serves as a principal adviser to the President as a member of the University’s executive leadership team. Dr. Sellers works with the Provost on matters related to diversity at the University as well as a broad range of academic issues including the budget, faculty tenure and promotions, and student enrollment. He oversees operations of three central administrative units. Dr. Sellers provides strategic leadership to increase access and success for all students, recruit and retain diverse faculty, and develop academic programs that prepare all students for success in a diverse world. Prior to joining the Provost’s Office, Dr. Sellers was chair of the University of Michigan Department of Psychology. His research interests include ethnicity, racial and ethnic identity, personality and health, athletic participation, and personality. He has published several research articles and book chapters that examine factors associated with the psycho-social development of African American student-athletes.

Michelle Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, Women’s Studies, Social Welfare, American Studies and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY and founding faculty member of The Public Science Project, a university-community research space designed in collaboration with movements for racial and educational justice. As a scholar, expert witness in litigation, a teacher and an educational activist, her work centers theoretically and epistemically on questions of justice and dignity, privilege and oppression, and how solidarities emerge. Dr. Fine has been recognized with a range of awards including Honorary Degrees from Bank Street College, Lewis and Clark, Stanford University and the Distinguished Alumni award from Teachers College Columbia, as well as lifetime achievement awards from the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association.

Stephen Russell is Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor in Child Development, chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, and Director of the School of Human Ecology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an expert in adolescent and young adult health, with a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity. He has served on the governing boards of the Society for Research in Child Development, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), National Council on Family Relations (he was elected fellow), the Society for Research on Adolescence (President, 2012-2014).

Website: https://cns.utexas.edu/directory/item/14-human-ecology/2391-russell-stephen?Itemid=349
Twitter: @StephnTRussell

Nkemka Anyiwo is a Vice Provost and National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the Human Development and Quantitative Methods division at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her M.S.W. and Ph.D. in Social Work and Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Anyiwo is affiliated with the Racial Empowerment Collaborative, where she examines the sociocultural factors that promote the resilience, racial healing, and sociopolitical agency of Black youth. Given the ubiquity of media in the lives of youth, Dr. Anyiwo also investigates the role of digital contexts and art as sociocultural influences on Black youth’s social identity, sociopolitical beliefs, and activism. Her program of research is shaped by her own experiences as a youth activist, artist, and racial justice advocate. She has led several cultural and social justice organizations and served as a community and campus organizer to address racial inequity.

Website: www.nkemkaanyiwo.com
Twitter: @NkemkaA

Mimi Arbeit (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor of psychology at Suffolk University and Principal Investigator of the Youth Equity & Sexuality Lab, focused on promoting adolescent development and fighting white supremacy, fascism, and cis-hetero-patriarchy. Current projects investigate how sexual violence prevention practices can address threats posed by male supremacists, and how adults can interrupt far-right and fascist attempts to recruit youth into their ranks. She’s honored to support and collaborate with antifascist community organizers in Charlottesville, Boston, and beyond, and supported media strategy across a network of antiracist activists fighting back against the 2017 white supremacist attacks on Charlottesville. She works to integrate antifascism with youth development theory and practice. Her recent article in the Journal of Youth Development (Arbeit et al., 2020) offers a plan for how youth development practitioners can stop fascist recruitment of youth through prevention, intervention, and counter-recruiting youth into movements for social justice.

Website: MimiArbeit.com
Twitter: @MimiArbeit

Dr. Lorena Aceves is a first-generation Latina scholar who recently completed her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Lorena is currently serving as an AAAS/SRCD Executive Branch Federal Policy Fellow at the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Head Start. Dr. Aceves’ research in graduate school focused on understanding how cultural, familial, and individual-level factors contributed to Latinx adolescent’s academic achievement and educational attainment. After insightful internship experiences in the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Aceves became committed to pursuing a career outside of academia, which is why she chose to pursue the AAAS/SRCD Fellowship. She plans to build a career in non-academic spaces, where she will leverage developmental science to promote equitable opportunities and resources for students, children, and families from underrepresented backgrounds.

Website: https://lorena-aceves.weebly.com
Twitter: @lacevesphd2020

Scholar Activism Across Contexts and Careers: Promoting Social Justice in the Developmental Sciences and Beyond

Session Type: Invited Panel

Abstract

This session addresses the career-development needs of scholars who are incorporating or want to incorporate social justice initiatives into their work by convening a group of esteemed developmental scientists who engage in scholar activism across diverse settings. First, a panel with senior scholar activists will be moderated by Dr. Noelle Hurd. Panelists include Dr. Robert Sellers, who has extensive experience advancing social justice within the academy; Dr. Michelle Fine, who employs scholar activism to advance community change; and Dr. Stephen Russell, who successfully leverages his research to advance social justice in the policy arena. In this moderated panel, expert scholar activists will have the opportunity to reflect on challenges and opportunities they have experienced across their careers and to offer wisdom for scholars interested in more intentionally centering social justice in their work. Second, break-out groups featuring each senior panelist paired with an early career scholar-activist will provide space for open discussion of activism within the academy, community, and policy realms. Dr. Robert Sellers and Dr. Nkemka Anyiwo will engage with attendees relative to scholar activism in the academy (moderator: Dr. Rebecca White). Dr. Michelle Fine and Dr. Mimi Arbeit will engage with attendees relative to scholar activism in the community (moderator: Dr. Joanna Williams). Dr. Stephen Russell and Dr. Lorena Aceves will engage with attendees relative to scholar activism in the policy arena (moderator: Dr. Noelle Hurd). Attendees will learn about successfully fashioning careers to promote social justice.

Sub Unit

• Invited Program

Moderator

• Noelle Hurd, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Joanna Lee Williams, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Rebecca M. B. White, Arizona State University

Panelists

• Robert M. Sellers, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Michelle Fine, graduate center, UNY

• Stephen T Russell, University of Texas at Austin

Activist

• Nkemka Anyiwo, University of Pennsylvania

• Miriam R. Arbeit, Suffolk University

• Lorena Aceves, Child Trends -Maryland