Doing Translational Research

Dr. Renata M. Leitão is a Brazilian/Canadian design researcher with eleven years of experience in collaborative projects with Indigenous and marginalized communities. Dr. Leitão holds a PhD in Environmental Design and a MASc in Design & Complexity (Université de Montréal). In this episode, Dr. Leitão discusses the importance of intercultural translation, including how academics and researchers can connect with the communities they are working with.

Dr. Adam Hoffman is an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. His research focuses on how ethnic, racial, and gender identities develop during adolescence and how they affect academic motivation and achievement, well-being and mental health. Hoffman also investigates how social identities can be leveraged to promote positive youth development. Hoffman shares with host Tony Burrow about his research with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and how he was able to engage with them for his research.

Dr. Laura Bellows is an associate professor in the division on nutritional sciences, after spending 20 years at Colorado State University. Her research is focused on the development of eating habits and physical activity patterns in early childhood; interventions in the early care setting; and the influence of parental behaviors and the home environment on the development of these behaviors.  Much of her work is focused on health disparate populations, including those with limited resources, who are Latino, and living in rural communities. Additionally, Dr. Bellows has worked with an interdisciplinary food systems team contributing expertise in diet quality, food security, the food environment and rural communities. Dr. Bellows has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Barack Obama, and the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior's Mid-Career Award.  She serves as an associate editor for the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and co-chair of the research division for the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

This episode we hear from Deborah Sellers, director of research and evaluation for the Residential Child Care Project (RCCP) in the BCTR. Much of RCCP's work involves training staff in residential facilities and schools worldwide to respond to traumatized children in crisis without further traumatizing the child. Through her work in RCCP, Sellers helps design research studies that answer the right questions to guide decisions and uses data to evaluate how facilities can improve child safety. Deborah Sellers is director of research and evaluation for the Residential Child Care Project (RCCP) in the Bonfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She facilitates research and evaluation activities in RCCP by identifying new avenues for research, supporting the development of new proposals, monitoring and/or assisting with data collection, processing, and analyses, and writing manuscripts for publication. Dr. Sellers also oversees the data collection efforts associated with the implementation of RCCP's Children and Residential Experiences (CARE) and Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) programs. Dr. Sellers has extensive experience in research and evaluation design, the design and implementation of survey research, and the analysis of quantitative data as well as data collection, processing and analysis in substantive areas including chronic illness, end-of-life care, organ donation, adult and adolescent health promotion and foster as well as residential care for children.

Laura Tach and Elizabeth Day of Cornell Project 2Gen join Tony to talk about two-generation approaches to helping families thrive. They discuss why addressing the needs of both children and adults in a single family is a more effective way to create positive outcomes. Project 2Gen has extensive connections in communities and the court system. These partners have helped form the research that then benefits vulnerable families. Laura Tach is an sssociate professor of policy analysis and management and sociology (by courtesy) at Cornell University. Her research and teaching interests focus on poverty and social policy. Together with Rachel Dunifon, she co-directs Cornell Project 2Gen, an initiative of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Project 2Gen serves as a hub for research, policy and practice that supports vulnerable caregivers and children together. Elizabeth Day is assistant director for policy engagement for Cornell Project 2Gen and an engaged learning associate with the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. Her research focuses on bridging research and policy, with a particular focus on adolescent well-being and family policy at the state level.

Tony welcomes Jutta Dotterweich to reflect on her career with Act for Youth. Jutta retired in June after 22 years with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Jutta received her MA in Psychology, Westfaelische Wilhelms University in Muenster, Germany in 1979. She has years of professional, community-based experience in the mental health and human services field in New York State and New Jersey. Jutta started as an Extension Associate at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research in 1999; working with centers on training and curriculum development in the areas of collaboration, community building, positive youth development, adolescent sexual and mental health, and implementation science.

This is the debut episode of the new BCTR director Tony Burrow! Tony welcomes Patrick Hill, who studies how individuals consider and ultimately commit to a purpose for life. Hill notes that we all face difficult times where we have to decide who we are and where we want to go. He's interested in helping people find direction at times of uncertainty by determining what the best choices are for them by identifying their own direction in life. He and Tony also discuss the lifespan perspective of his work and his current research in retirement communities. Patrick Hill is an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. His research focuses on understanding how dispositional traits predict and shape trajectories of healthy aging. Hill's current research is interested in how individuals explore options for and ultimately commit to a purpose for life, and how having a sense of purpose predicts important life outcomes. In addition, he examines the lifespan development of pro-social personality characteristics, such as dispositional gratitude and forgiveness, as well as how these traits influence relationship outcomes. His research program considers these questions with the intent of promoting healthy development from adolescence into older adulthood. Doing Translational Research is produced by Carrie Chalmers.

In Chris' final episode as Doing Translational Research host and director of the BCTR, he talks to his friend and colleague Andrew Papachristos, a professor of sociology doing translational criminology. How can social science help identify who will become a victim of gun violence and how to best intervene? Chris and Andy discuss this as well as Andy's path to academia, the biggest barrier in translational work and Andy's approach to mentoring graduate students. Andrew V. Papachristos is a professor of sociology and the director of the Northwestern Neighborhood & Network Initiative. Papachristos aims to understand how the connected nature of cities—how their citizens, neighborhoods and institutions are tied to one another—affect what we feel, think, and do. His main research applies network science to the study of gun violence, police misconduct, illegal gun markets, Al Capone, street gangs and urban neighborhoods. He is also in the process of completing a manuscript on the evolution of black street gangs and politics in Chicago from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Papachristos is also actively involved in policy-related research, including the evaluation of gun violence prevention programs in more than a dozen U.S. cities. Hosted by Christopher Wildeman, director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University. Produced and edited by Carrie Chalmers.

Chris welcomes Lauren Brinkley-Rubenstein, assistant professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. Their wide-ranging conversation covers: the definition of social medicine, how COVID-19 more greatly impacts people in prisons and jails*, of course they cover her work with community partners, and there's a ghost named Kim. Yes, a ghost. *This episode was recorded in May, so covid numbers mentioned will have changed since then. Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein is an assistant professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, as well as a core faculty member in the UNC Center for Health Equity Research. Dr. Brinkley-Rubinstein’s research focuses on how incarceration can impact health outcomes. She is the PI of a recently funded NIMHD R01 cohort study relevant to pre-exposure prophylaxis among people on probation and parole and the MPI of a NIDA Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network Clinical Research Center grant that will include the implementation and evaluation of opioid overdose prevention programs in community supervision settings in Rhode Island, Philadelphia, and Brunswick County North Carolina. This podcast is produced by Carrie Chalmers

This month we hear from our own Jane Powers, project director of ACT for Youth. Jane and Chris get into the history and work of ACT, changing communities to be better environments for young people, building capacity in practitioners, the strength of partnerships with diverse perspectives and Jane's life examining adolescent development. Jane Powers, Ph.D. is a researcher based at Cornell University's Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She is project director for Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Center for Community Action which connects youth development research to practice, provides training and technical support, evaluation assistance and resources to communities and youth serving programs across New York State. Her research expertise includes positive youth development, child abuse and neglect, youth homelessness, violence prevention and program evaluation. She is interested in the application of knowledge to practice, and in translating research to improve environments for children, youth and families.

In our first episode recorded in coronavirus separation, Chris speaks with Tasseli McKay, a social science researcher in the division for applied justice research at Research Triangle International. They discuss the most common acts of violence: partner violence; and the interplay of family violence in the context of mass incarceration. Tasseli notes how government systems, often at odds with each other, economically hobble families and are dangerous in other ways. They discuss how programs need to understand the different causes of violence and design programs accordingly. Tasseli also praises her community partners' vast knowledge, which makes her work possible and meaningful. Tasseli McKay is a social science researcher with more than a decade of experience in public health research. Ms.McKay’s research examines intimate partner violence in marginalized communities, couple and family relationships in the context of justice system involvement and strategies for improving health coverage and access to care among justice-involved persons. She has extensive experience in study design and instrument development, qualitative and quantitative analysis and dissemination of findings through articles, issue briefs, technical reports and presentations. Doing Translational Research is produced by Carrie Chalmers.

This episode Chris is joined by Emily Wang of Yale's Health Justice Lab, a collaborative, innovative interdisciplinary team focused on improving the health of individuals and communities who have been affected by mass incarceration. They discuss her work with incarcerated and recently-incarcerated patients; how the transition from incarceration to home is a particularly health-harming time; getting buy in from patients; evaluating programs; and the joy her work brings her. Dr. Emily Wang, MD, MAS, is an associate professor in the Yale School of Medicine and directs the Health Justice Lab. The Lab has run studies ranging from the epidemiology of incarceration and cardiovascular health to mitigating the community impact of gun violence using a participatory approach and assets based framework. Dr. Wang has cared for thousands of individuals with a history of incarceration and is co-founder of the Transitions Clinic Network (TCN), a growing consortium of 30 community health centers nationwide dedicated to caring for individuals recently released from correctional facilities by employing individuals with a history of incarceration as community health workers. Dr. Wang has an AB from Harvard University, an MD from Duke University and a MAS from the University of California, San Francisco.

This month's guest is the BCTR's own Martha Holden, director of the Residential Child Care Project (RCCP). She and Chris discuss her years of studying, and training care workers, how to keep children in care safe and healthy. They cover how power struggles escalate, working with state agencies and facilities, working with children with trauma and RCCP's internationally-used training programs. Martha J. Holden is a senior extension associate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the director of the Residential Child Care Project. As project director, she provides technical assistance to implement CARE, a program model for residential child caring agencies, Therapeutic Crisis Intervention System to residential and educational organizations, training programs in violence prevention, and a program in the Investigation of Institutional Maltreatment, throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Israel. Throughout her career, Ms. Holden has been studying ways to prevent the occurrence of institutional abuse of children through training, investigating and influencing organizational culture.

Do we recognize our influence on others? Vanessa Bohn's research suggests we underestimate it. This episode she and Chris discuss social influence and the psychology of compliance and consent. Issues around consent and compliance arise in our romantic relationships, work life and interactions with law enforcement, to name a few, and we're not always consciously aware when they're in play. Vanessa Bohns is an associate professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University, Her research focuses broadly on social influence and the psychology of compliance and consent. In particular, she examines the extent to which people recognize the influence they have over others in various interpersonal interactions, including when asking for help, encouraging one’s peers to engage in questionable behaviors and making romantic advances. Some of her additional research interests include prosocial behavior, perspective-taking and self-conscious emotions. Doing Translational Research is produced by Carrie Chalmers.

Ever since postal systems arose, people have engaged in distance learning. But how are digital technologies impacting learning contexts? This month's guest René Kizilcec discusses his work in this area, including massive online open courses (MOOCs): who uses them, what are they learning and do MOOCs improve access to knowledge? Chris and René also touch on whether digital learning perpetuates achievement gaps along race and gender lines or narrows them. René Kizilcec is an assistant professor in the School of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University, where he directs the Future of Learning Lab. His research is on the impact of digital technologies in formal and informal learning contexts and scalable interventions to broaden participation, raise academic performance and reduce achievement gaps. Kizilcec is known for his research in Learning Analytics on understanding and supporting learners in open-scale courses such as Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. He also works on developing methods for the design and analysis of experiments. Doing Translational Research is recorded, edited and produced by Carrie Chalmers.

The foundation of his research interests stem from his background growing up in a large, working-class family in South Dakota, Dan Lichter explains. He and Chris discuss rural communities and how they develop and grow, poverty, issues of racial diversity and identity and the sentiment of disenfranchisement in rural communities. Lichter has always done work that is obviously important to the general population and acknowledges that rural America has been historically left out of consideration in academia. Daniel T. Lichter is the Ferris Family professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and Professor of Sociology. Lichter has published widely on topics in population and public policy, including studies of concentrated poverty and inequality, intermarriage, cohabitation and marriage among disadvantaged women and immigrant incorporation.

Karen Levy has a background in sociology and law and studies the social, legal and ethical implications of technology. She and Chris get into her interest in the employment of surveillance in mundane contexts: the workplace, households and in intimate partner relationships. They discuss when individuals use surveillance on each other as well as when companies watch workers and consumers. They also explore the ways surveillance data can be used to counter injustice on behalf of workers or marginalized populations. Karen Levy is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, and associate member of the faculty of Cornell Law School. She researches how law and technology interact to regulate social life, with particular focus on social and organizational aspects of surveillance. Much of Dr. Levy's research analyzes the uses of monitoring for social control in various contexts, from long-haul trucking to intimate relationships. She is also interested in how data collection uniquely impacts, and is contested by, marginalized populations. Doing Translational Research is produced, recorded and edited by Carrie Chalmers, who actually enjoyed that Ulysses comment (Ithaca tie in!).

Our guest Bruce Lewenstein is a professor in the Departments of Communication and of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. A historian and social scientist, his main focus is the public understanding of science. He and Chris discuss studying scientific controversies and the essential importance of listening to and understanding what a community values in order to work with that community. Bruce Lewenstein is an authority on public communication of science and technology, how science and technology are reported to the public and how the public understands controversial scientific issues and "emerging technologies" such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Trained as a historian of science, he often uses historical case studies in his research. He has also done extensive work evaluating "citizen science" outreach projects, in which citizens fully participate in the scientific process by gathering, entering and sometimes analyzing scientific data. In recent years, he has helped connect the "public communication" field with the "learning sciences" field, especially around issues of public engagement in science. He works frequently with scientists learning more about public communication of science and technology.

Lars Andersen of the Rockwool Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark joins us this month to discuss his research on crime and the consequences of punishment. He and Chris discuss the importance of using quality data to answer questions or reexamine existing knowledge based on poor data; how criminal justice professionals (wardens, guards, parole officers, etc.) engage with his research; and how to design sentencing policies that improve life chances instead of ruining them. Lars Højsgaard Andersen is a senior researcher at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in Copenhagen, Denmark. His research interests include how criminal justice contact concentrates within and across generations, how conditions of confinement affect people and the role of family processes for these topics.

This month guest host and BCTR associate director Maria Fitzpatrick chats with Will Hobbs about his research on sudden changes and how people adapt to them. The change in question could be personal, like the death of a friend, or societal, like a governmental policy shift. As a researcher, he's most often associated with methods such as data science using complex data sources and causal inference. William Hobbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. He is also in the Department of Government and on the graduate field faculty in Information Science. Hobbs studies politics and health, especially the social effects of government actions and how small groups of people adapt to sudden changes in their lives. His recent projects have studied the development of public attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act, how social networks heal after a death, and unintended consequences of online censorship in China.

This month we welcome Lonnie Berger, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Ph.D. Program Chair at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His work aims to inform public policy in order to improve its capacity to assist families in accessing resources, improving family functioning and wellbeing and ensuring that children are able to grow and develop in the best possible environments. Lonnie and Chris discuss the intersection of public policy, family structures and family resources and how those affect child wellbeing. How Lonnie's grounding in social work, as opposed to a social science disipline, informs and broadens his research. Lonnie has extensive experience working with state agencies in Wisconsin around child wellbeing generally and also the foster system. He descibes specific examples of issues and successes in partnering with state agencies to further child wellbeing. Lonnie Berger is the director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Ph.D. Program Chair at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is engaged in studies in three primary areas: (1) examining the determinants of substandard parenting, child maltreatment, and out-of-home placement for children; (2) exploring associations among socioeconomic factors, parenting behaviors, and children’s care, development, and wellbeing; and (3) assessing the influence of public policies on parental behaviors and child and family well-being.

This month Chris chats with political scientist Jamila Michener. Jamila gets into her interest in politics and inequality from an early age; how public policy plays a role in alienating people at the economic and racial margins; and how connections to stakeholders shape her work. Jamila Michener is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Her recent book, "Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics," examines how Medicaid affects democratic citizenship. "Fragmented Democracy" assesses American political life from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources.

This time Chris is joined by his collaborator, political scientist Peter Enns. They get into Peter's work examining how how policy can be informed by public opinion in such areas as mass incarceration and unerstanding election resutls. He also explains why it's a good time for criminal justice reform. Peter K. Enns is an associate professor in the Department of Government and executive director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. His research focuses on public opinion, representation, mass incarceration and inequality. His recent book "Incarceration Nation" explains why the public became more punitive in the 1960s, 70s, 80, and 90s, and how this increasing punitiveness led to the rise of mass incarceration in the United States.

Shannon Gleeson studies workplace rights, the experiences of immigrant workers and the role of advocacy organizations in holding government bureaucracies accountable. She and Chris discuss the overlap between immigration and labor policy, immigrant labor rights, the often-overlooked importance of policy implementation and working with various stakeholders. Shannon describes her experiences working with communities, including the importance of finding the gatekeepers and not over-promising as researchers, Shannon Gleeson is an associate professor of labor relations, law, and history in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Gleeson’s first book, "Conflicting Commitments: The Politics of Enforcing Immigrant Worker Rights in San Jose and Houston," was published in 2012 by Cornell University Press. Her second book, "Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace Protections in the United States," (forthcoming, University of California Press) examines U.S. labor and employment laws, the challenges low-wage workers face when they come forward to file a claim and their experiences in fighting for justice.

Melissa Ferguson is an expert in social cognition, studying how our unconscious attitudes and goals differ from our stated or self-perceived ones. She and Chris discuss her research in this area using implicit association tests to measure implicit prejudice, with the ultimate goal of changing it. They also get into the replication issues with psychology research and working with undergrad research subjects vs. subjects in the broader community. Melissa Ferguson is senior associate dean of social sciences and a professor of psychology at Cornell University. Her work addresses how classical psychological constructs, including attitudes, goals, judgments, and ideology, operate in an unconscious, unintentional manner. She has found that creative solutions to difficult problems can be tracked non-consciously, even before the person consciously grasps the solution.

This month we happily welcome Phyllis Moen, current McKnight Endowed Presidential Chair in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, and former Cornell faculty and founding director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell. Chris and Phyllis discuss her research on the mismatch between outdated work-time and career/retirement scripts and 21st century workforce and economic realities. She also studies gender differences and disparities at all stages of the changing life course. The old templates of work life no longer fit changing demographics and culture. Trying to apply these old work formats today leads to issues in the health, mental health, and family life of workers. Moen specifically discusses the problem areas and how to update our ideas of how work should work. Phyllis Moen is a life course scholar interested in the mismatch between 20th century clocks and calendars shaping work, careers and the gendered life course and 21st century demographies, technologies, risks and realities. She directs the Life Course Center, holds a McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair, and is a professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota, following 25 years at Cornell University. While at Cornell, Dr. Moen founded the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center as well as the first Alfred P. Sloan Center on Work and Families, the Cornell Careers Institute. Dr. Moen’s latest book is the award-winning "Encore Adulthood: Boomers on the Edge of Risk, Renewal, and Purpose" (2016). Her newest project, the University of Minnesota Advanced Careers Initiative (UMAC), aims to reimagine higher education to include intergenerational relationships and to serve as an innovative catalyst promoting meaningful encores for Boomers.

Amanda Purington is our guest this episode. She and host Janis Whitlock discuss Amanda's work on Social Media TestDrive, a program that gives youth a safe, simulated online experience. TestDrive also sparks conversations between youth, youth practitioners and parents about online safety, cyberbullying, and positive online experiences. Amanda has long-standing relationships with various non-researcher stakeholders and talks about the ways those rich connections improve both practice and research. Amanda Purington is the director of evaluation and research for ACT for Youth within the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She also studies communication as a PhD student within the Social Media Lab at Cornell University. Professionally and academically, Amanda is passionate about using research and evaluation to promote the health and well-being of youth.

Chris is joined by bethany ojalehto of Cornell's Department of Human Development this episode. They discuss bethany's work examining how we conceptualize the natural world and how our perspectives influence what we find possible in that context. She works with the indigenous Ngöbe communities of Panama and non-indigenous people in the US and elsewhere in the "west," examining how ideas of sustainability vary across these cultures. bethany ojalehto is assistant professor of human development at Cornell University. Her research explores how people conceptualize agency and ecologies, with a focus on cultural variation in social cognition and human-environment relationships. She has been privileged to develop these research perspectives through partnership with Indigenous Ngöbe communities of Panama, where she has participated in research and collaboration since 2010.

Guest host Janis Whitlock talks to Kimberly Kopko about her research on parenting, parenting education, and working with communities. Kopko notes the importance of getting buy-in from the right people at community agencies when collaborating on a research project, and the need to work to give all children an equally strong start in life. Kimberly Kopko is senior extension associate, associate director of Cornell Cooperative Extension and associate director of extension and outreach in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Her research and Extension work examines parenting and family processes. Current research and outreach projects include: parenting and child learning, parenting education in School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs), teens being raised by custodial grandparents, and the use of research and evidence-based parent education programs to promote positive parenting behaviors and strengthen families. Ongoing academic and research interests incorporate an international dimension with a focus on parenting and family support and comparative parenting, family, and child social policies in Scandinavian countries.

In our first episode with host and new BCTR Director Chris Wildeman, we hear from Bruce Western, who studies incarceration and reentry into society. They discuss incarceration's effect on social and economic inequality; Dr Western's feeling that big datasets weren't telling the whole story about incarceration and reentry - and how his research took a different approach; and how understanding and expanding the idea of justice in the lives of disadvantaged people can improve social problems. Bruce Western is professor of sociology, Columbia University; co-director, Columbia Justice Lab; and distinguished visiting research professor, University of Queensland, Australia. Western's research examines trends in American economic inequality and the growth of the US penal population. These topics are joined by an interest in the shifting landscape of American poverty over the last 40 years. He is the author of "Punishment and Inequality in America" (2007) and "Homeward: Life in the Year After Prison" (2018). Western is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Radcliffe Fellow and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and the National Academies of Science.

Our guest Neil Lewis studies how the interplay between social identity and social contexts shape motivation and goal-pursuit processes. He uses this framework to understand social disparities, particularly disparities in education and health outcomes. He and Karl discuss ways that identity and social situations can affect health outcomes, obstacles when working with communities, and why education is so important for communities, not just individuals. Neil A. Lewis, Jr. is an assistant professor of communication and social behavior at Cornell University with graduate field appointments in communication and psychology. He earned his B.A. in economics and psychology at Cornell University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in social psychology at the University of Michigan.

It's our 20th episode! This seemed like a good moment to address a question we often hear: What is translational research? To tackle this important question Karl is joined by BCTR associate director John Eckenrode. They cover the origins of translational research, and how it differs from "basic" and "applied" research. There are some examples of translational research projects and throughout the conversation they touch on why this research method is so effective and more and more in-demand by funders, policymakers and practitioners. John Eckenrode is a social psychologist and professor of human development and associate director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. He is also founder and co-director of the National Data Archive of Child Abuse and Neglect. His research concerns child abuse and neglect, the effects of preventive interventions, translational research, and stress and coping processes.

BCTR associate director Chris Wildeman sits in for Karl Pillemer this episode. Our guest James Garbarino argues that teenage killers are not doomed to a life of violence and most can be reahabilitated by the time they are fully-developed adults. They also talk about sentencing in these cases, how the judicial system deals with young killers, and what could be changed to better serve this youth while keeping the public safe. James Garbarino holds the Maude Clarke Chair in Psychology and was founding director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. His research focuses on issues in the social ecology of child and adolescent development. He has a long-standing interest in a wide range of violence-related issues, including war, child maltreatment, childhood aggression, and juvenile delinquency. Since 1994, he has served as a scientific expert witness in murder cases. Among the books he has authored are: "Miller’s Children: Why Giving Teenage Killers a Second Chance Matters for All of Us" (2018) and "Listening to Killers" (2015).

Maria Fitzpatrick, the current Milman Fellow in the Bronfenbrenner Center, sat down with Karl to talk about her work centering on creating well being for the most vulnerable: children and elder adults. Maria is the first economist we've had on the podcast! They discuss mortality and retirement, the opoid crisis and child maltreatment, Maria's insights into working with policy makers, and the importance of high-quality early childhood programs. Maria Fitzpatrick is an associate professor in the Department of Policy and Management, Milman Fellow at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is also an affiliate in the CESifo Research Network, the Cornell Populations Center, the Center for the Study of Inequality, and the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Her main area of focus is the economics of education. Specifically her research focuses on early childhood education policies, and higher education and teacher compensation, benefits, and labor supply.

In this episode we hear from Janis Whitock, director of the Youth Risk and Opportunity Lab in the Bronfenbrenner Center at Cornell University. She and Karl talk about how she unexpectedly began to study self-injury in youth, and how that focus has widened to examine the risks youth face in their transition to adulthood. Dr. Whitlock also discusses how to best communicate with policymakers and practitioners, among other topics. Janis Whitlock is a research scientist in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. She is also the director of the Cornell Youth Risk and Opportunity Lab. She is the author of publications on non-suicidal self-injury in adolescence and young adulthood, social media and mental health, and in youth connectedness to schools and communities. She earned a doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University (2003), a Masters of Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill (1994), and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley (1988). Her current primary research focus includes development of early detection and intervention in mental health and wellbeing using social media and other technological affordances, particularly in the areas of self-injury and suicide. She is also a principal investigator for an early intervention project aimed at reducing sexual violence and is pursuing a newer line of research related to sexual health and development in the digital age. She is dedicated to translating research into practice and policy through broad dissemination of user friendly materials and through development of web-based training and education programs for parents and professionals (see www.selfinjury.bctr.cornell.edu), largely as an outgrowth of her work as a practitioner in adolescent and women’s health in a variety of clinical, administrative, and education-related capacities for over a decade.

In this episode BCTR director Karl Pillemer welcomes Dr. Monika Safford to discuss how the chronically ill rural poor are underserved or completely unserved by the current health care system. This lack of resources has created resourceful and creative community medical groups that fill in the gaps, and with whom Dr. Safford and her team have partnered to address the health crises in their communities. Dr. Safford is the John J. Kulper Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is a clinician-investigator with clinical expertise in preventive healthcare, treatment of acute and chronic illness, and the coordination of care for those with complex diseases. She is an expert in patient-centered research on diabetes, cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention, and health disparities.

Peter Lloyd-Sherlock examines the social protection, health, and well being of older people in developing countries. In this conversation he looks at some myths about elder care in developing countries (strong family support is not always present or adequate), considers the responsibilities of researchers who collaborate with NGOs, and calls for greater social care for elders. Peter Lloyd-Sherlock is Professor of Social Policy & International Development in the School of International Development at East Anglia University, England. His main area of research is the social protection, health, and well being of older people in developing countries. He is also interested in the economic and social effects of non-communicable diseases, such as stroke, heart disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. He works closely with a wide range of international development agencies.

In this episode Karl chats with Dr. Elissa Kozlov about psychological support for patients in palliative care. Dr. Kozlov also discusses insurance coverage for mental health in palliative care, support for family members, and the important difference between palliative and hospice care (they're not at all the same thing!). Dr. Elissa Kozlov is a T32 post-doctoral fellow at Weill Cornell Medical College at the Center for End-of-Life Research. She earned her doctorate from Washington University in both Clinical and Aging and Developmental Psychology. Her research focuses on mental health assessment and intervention within palliative care, patient and family knowledge of palliative care, later life family communication, and barriers to palliative care integration and utilization. Dr. Karl Pillemer is director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Hazel E. Reed Professor of Human Development, and Professor of Gerontology in Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dana Weiner provides analytic consultaion to child welfare systems, using existing data to help policy makers better help children in need. She and Karl discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with using data and research evidence to inform decision making in public policy. Her highly collaborative work focuses on the prevention of problems before they occur. Dana Weiner is a policy fellow at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where she provides analytic consultation and policy guidance to child welfare jurisdictions across the country. Dr. Weiner teaches Data for Policy Analysis and Management to master's students at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, and her research has focused on quantifying resource accessibility - analyzing the role of geospatial relationships in child welfare systems - and on evaluating the implementation of evidence-based models in child welfare and juvenile justice contexts.

In this episode Karl and Marney Thomas discuss her decades of work evaluating military programs that support soldiers' and their families' health and well being. Marney Thomas is Military Projects Director Emeritus and Co-Principal Investigator Military Projects in the BCTR. Her research includes examining the implementation/impact of US Army family program services, the effects of deployment on military family functioning, and evaluation studies on family violence intervention programs.

In this episode Megan Comfort and Karl chat about deeper engagement with communities, particularly post-study, integrating community feedback into the research process, and the effects of incarceration on families. Megan Comfort is a senior research sociologist in Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International’s Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice research division. Her research interests and areas of expertise include families and incarceration, HIV risk and prevention, and health inequities among urban poor populations. Her book "Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison" (University of Chicago Press, 2008), analyzes the “secondary prisonization” of women in relationships with incarcerated men.

Dr. Mardelle M. Shepley is a professor in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis and associate director of the Cornell Institute for Health Futures. A registered architect, she interweaves teaching and practice. She and Karl discuss using evidence-based design to solve problems, the impact of the physical environment on behavior, collaborating with those who will use a space, and the importance of incorporating access to nature into design.

This time Karl welcomes Jen Agans, assistant director of the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement (PRYDE). They discuss the importance of research/community partnerships, Agan's research on children's out-of-school time, and Agans explains what exactly the 4-H program is. Dr. Jennifer Agans is assistant director of PRYDE in the Bronfenbrenner Center. Before coming to Cornell University, she received her Ph.D. and M.A. in child study and human development from Tufts University and her B.A. in psychology from Macalester College. Dr. Agans’ research focuses on youth development within out-of-school time contexts, and her work with PRYDE builds on her interest in bridging youth research and practice.

Brian Leidy is director of The Military Projects in the Bronfenbrenner Center. He and Karl discuss the project's work doing process evaluation for the military and the challenges and importance of supporting this unique community. Brian D. Leidy is a senior extension associate and the principal investigator for the Military Projects in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. This work is funded primarily through grants from USDA/NIFA. He has formerly worked as a managerial consultant for social service agencies and educational institutions evaluating training, social service programs, and policy initiatives; and at Cornell doing training in supervision and administration with adult protective service supervisors and adult home administrators throughout New York State. Prior to coming to Cornell, he worked in public child welfare and mental health programs for children and adolescents.

In this episode Karl Pillemer talks with Marianella Casasola about her work examining infant cognitive development, early word learning, and early spatial cognition. Dr. Casasola talks about her experiences partnering with Head Start to do research, details of her more recent findings, and she gives some advice that any new parent can easily employ to boost infant learning. Marianella Casasola is an associate professor of human development and a faculty fellow of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR) at Cornell University. She studies infant cognitive development and early word learning with a particular interest in the interaction between thought and language during the first few years of development. She is especially interested in the emergence of spatial concepts, the early acquisition of spatial language, and the interplay between spatial cognition and spatial language in infants and young children.

This time Karl talks with Christopher Wildeman about his research on mass incarceration and inequality. Christopher Wildeman is an associate professor of policy analysis and management in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, where he is also co-director of the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect and a faculty fellow here in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Chris talks about his research and the way working with communities has strengthened his work. His research and teaching interests revolve around the consequences of mass imprisonment for inequality, with emphasis on families, health, and children. He is also interested in child welfare, especially as relates to child maltreatment and the foster care system.

In this episode Bronfenbrenner Center director Karl Pillemer talks with Anthony Burrow, assistant professor of Human Development, director of the Purpose and Identity Processes Lab, and co-director of the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement (PRYDE) at Cornell. Karl and Tony discuss the importance of purpose in the lives of young people and the ways that we can encourage youth connection to purpose for their own benefit.

In this episode Bronfenbrenner Center director Karl Pillemer talks with Corinna Loeckenhoff, associate professor of Human Development and director of the Laboratory for Healthy Aging at Cornell and associate professor of Gerontology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Karl and Corinna discuss Dr. Loeckenhoff's research on aging and its effects on emotional and mental health, including the reminder that aging is not dying. They also talk about the new book "Emotion, Aging, and Health" (American Psychological Association), which expands on ideas explored in the 2013 Bronfenbrenner Conference. Corinna Loeckenhoff co-edited the book with Anthony Ong, also of the Department of Human Development at Cornell.

In this episode we hear from Andy Turner, who heads the 4-H Youth Development Program in New York State. He talks with BCTR director Karl Pillemer about 4-H/Cornell connections and changes he sees that will keep 4-H at the forefront of youth development programming. Andy has over 25 years' experience in Cooperative Extension/4-H. Advancing environmental education and sustainability, and applying a facilitative leadership style towards organizational change and innovation are two consistent themes throughout his career. Andy earned his bachelor's and master's from Cornell University and his Ed.D in executive leadership from St. John Fisher College.

In our second episode BCTR director Karl Pillmer talks to Dr. Charles Izzo, a research associate in the BCTR studying the multi-level processes by which programmed interventions influence human functioning and health. His work focuses on factors that influence the quality of interactions between those in the helping professions (youth workers, home visitors) and the clients they serve, and translating research knowledge into useful tools for practitioners and administrators.

In this episode of Doing Translational Research, BCTR director Karl Pillemer interviews Cornell professor of nutritional science Carol Devine. Professor Devine studies how food choices over the life course are shaped by life transitions, social roles, and the lived environment.