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2023 – Ronald B. Mincy, How Fathers Help Their Children Develop

April 10, 2024 03:15 PM

Ronald B. Mincy is the Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, and director of the Center for Research on Fathers, Children, and Family Well-Being at Columbia University. He is a co-principal investigator of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and a faculty member of the Columbia Population Research Center.

2005 - James Q. Wilson, Marriage and Commitment

April 10, 2024 02:18 PM

James Q. Wilson is currently the Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. Dr. James Q. Wilson has enjoyed a long storied career in the public policy arena. From 1961 to 1987, he taught political science at Harvard University, where he was the Shattuck Professor of Government. He was the James Collins Professor of Management and Public Policy at UCLA from 1985 until 1997. He is the author or co-author of fourteen books, the most recent of which are The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Has Weakened Families (Harper Collins, 2002), Moral Judgment (Basic Books), and the Moral Sense (Free Press). His others include American Government, Bureaucracy, Thinking About Crime, Varieties of Police Behavior, Political Organizations, and Crime and Human Nature (with Richard J. Herrnstein). In addition he has edited or contributed to books on urban problems, government regulation of business, and the prevention of delinquency among children. Many of his writings on morality and human character have been collected in On Character: Essays by James Q. Wilson. His textbook on American government is more widely used on University campuses than any other government textbook.

2006 - Sara McLanahan, Fragile Families: Myth and Realities

April 10, 2024 02:16 PM

Sara McLanahan is a professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is a faculty associate of the Office of Population Research and is the founder and directory of the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Future of Children, a journal dedicated to providing research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children. She is the past president of the Population Association of America, and has served on the National Academy of Sciences - Institute of Medicine Board on Children, Youth and Families and the boards of the American Sociological Association and the Populations Association of America. she currently serves on the Advisory board for the National Poverty Center and the Board of Trustees for the William T. Grant Foundation. Dr. McLanahan is the author of many articles and books and has received numerous awards and honors. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1979.

2007 - Kristin Anderson Moore, Child and Family Well Being: A New Look

April 10, 2024 02:14 PM

Dr. Moore is a Senior Scholar and Program Area Director for Child Trends a nonprofit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children. Dr. Moore is a social psychologist who studies trends in child and family well-being, positive development, the determinants and consequences of early sexual activity and parenthood, fatherhood, the effects of family structure and social change on children, and the effects of public policies and poverty on children. Dr. Moore was a founding member of the Task Force on Effective Programs and Research at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a member of NICHD Advisory Council, and served as a member of the bipartisan federal Advisory on Welfare Indicators. In 1999, Dr. Moore was awarded the Foundation for Child Development's Centennial Award for her achievements on behalf of children. She also was designated the 2002 Society for Adolescent Medicine Visiting Scholar and received the 2005 American Sociological Association's Distinguished Contribution Award from the Section on Children and Youth. Dr. Moore headed Child Trends for 14 years, and she has recently chosen to return to full-time research. Dr. Moore has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

2008 - Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

April 10, 2024 02:12 PM

Christian Smith is currently the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, Director of the Center for the Sociology of Religion, and Principal Investigator of the National Study of Youth and Religion. He recently served as Associate Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from 2000 to 2005. Smith worked at UNC Chapel Hill from 1994 to 2006. Before moving to UNC Chapel Hill in 1994, Smith taught for six years at Gordon College. During his years at UNC Chapel Hill, Smith has brought in about eight million dollars of research grant money from the Pew Charitable Trusts and Lilly Endowment, Inc. Smith is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books, including Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers ; Moral, Believing Animals: Human Culture and Personhood ; The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization of American Public Life, American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving , and The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and Social Movement Theory . He is also author or co-author of numerous journal articles. Smith’s scholarly interests focus on American religion, cultural sociology, adolescents, and sociological theory.

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