be the solution spring 2015

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution | 1

BSOS Welcomes Dean Gregory BallGregory F. Ball, Ph.D., joined the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) in October as Dean and Professor of Psychology. In addi-tion to meeting with BSOS stakehold-ers and assuming administrative tasks, Dean Ball has emerged as a valued leader throughout the University and across the University System of Maryland.

Dean Ball has been named Chair of the Innovations and Efficiencies in Education and Research Working Group in President Wallace Loh’s Flagship 2020 Commission, which is creating a road map to competitive excellence for the University. This group recom-mends improved ways to learn and teach, conduct research, and translate ideas into social and/or economic ventures.

In his first State of the College address in January, Dean Ball highlighted BSOS’s excellence and achievements in teaching, research, fundraising and sustainability as well as its commitment to diversity. He also emphasized the need for contin-ued growth in efficiency and in gaining external funding. His observations and plans for the College stem from the close relationships he has developed with fac-ulty, staff, students and alumni.

“In all of my meetings with depart-ments, centers, student groups, alumni, faculty and staff, I have been continually

impressed by the high quality of opera-tions and aspirations throughout the College,” Dean Ball said. “I am honored to be in a position to help BSOS get the recognition it deserves and the resources it needs to advance to even higher levels of greatness.”

As a researcher, Dean Ball focuses on biopsychology and considers how hor-mones act in the brain to change behav-ior. Much of his work is on birds as he studies how seasonal changes in physio-logical state can result in marked changes in the production of social behaviors and the neural substrate that regulates these behaviors. He is working with the Department of Psychology to continue the groundbreaking lab work he began at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

College HeadlinesTable of Contents

College Headlines . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–4

AASD News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 6

ANTH News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CCJS News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 9

ECON News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9–11

GEOG News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 13

GVPT News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 14, 16

HESP News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 16

JPSM News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 17

PSYC News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16, 18, 19

SOCY News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 20

Peace Chairs News . . . . . . . . . . . 21–23

Updates from Centers and More 24–26

Donors Make a Difference . . . . . 27

Be in Touch! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Dean Gregory Ball

continued on page 27

DEPARTMENT OF

Sociology

BE SOCIAL

COLLEGE OF

BEHAVIORAL & SOCIAL SCIENCESTHE SOLUTION

DEPARTMENT OF

Geographical Sciences

BE GLOBAL

COLLEGE OF


BE JUST

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Criminology & Criminal Justice

BE CIVIL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Government & PoliticsDEPARTMENT OF

Psychology

BE UNDERSTOOD

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Anthropology

BE CULTURAL

COLLEGE OF


BE HEARD

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Hearing & Speech SciencesDEPARTMENT OF


BE GLOBAL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Sociology

BE SOCIAL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Economics

BE EFFICIENT

COLLEGE OF


BE COUNTED

COLLEGE OF


JOINT PROGRAM IN

Survey MethodologyDEPARTMENT OF

Economics

BE EFFICIENT

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Sociology

BE SOCIAL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Psychology

BE UNDERSTOOD

COLLEGE OF


BE JUST

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Criminology & Criminal Justice

BE HEARD

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Hearing & Speech Sciences

BE JUST

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Criminology & Criminal JusticeDEPARTMENT OF

Psychology

BE UNDERSTOOD

COLLEGE OF


BE CIVIL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Government & Politics

BE COUNTED

COLLEGE OF


JOINT PROGRAM IN

Survey MethodologyDEPARTMENT OF

Anthropology

BE CULTURAL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Economics

BE EFFICIENT

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF


BE GLOBAL

COLLEGE OF


BE COUNTED

COLLEGE OF


JOINT PROGRAM IN

Survey Methodology

BE HEARD

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Hearing & Speech SciencesDEPARTMENT OF

Anthropology

BE CULTURAL

COLLEGE OF


BE CIVIL

COLLEGE OF


DEPARTMENT OF

Government & Politics

Want more news, events and features?

Check out the new BSOS web site!

bsos.umd.edu

B E T H E S O L U T I O N / S P R I N G 2 0 1 5

www.bsos.umd.edu

2 | College of Behavioral and Social Sciences: Be the Solution

Introducing the University Career Center @ BSOS To help students gain practical skills and experiences that will assist them on their employment path after graduation, the College and the University Career Center & The President’s Promise have established the University Career Center @ BSOS (UCC @ BSOS). Through this Center, staff members connect with students on an individual basis during half-hour or 45-minute appointments to offer customized career and internship information for all BSOS majors. The Center also offers workshops and employer-related events for students in individual departments and across the entire College. UCC @ BSOS is located on the second floor of Tydings Hall within the BSOS Academic Advising Suite.

By dividing time between her offices in Tydings and in the University Career Center & The President’s Promise in Hornbake Library, South Wing, BSOS Program Director Crystal Sehlke keeps BSOS students and staff informed of opportunities and events at the University level as soon as they become available.

Through UCC @ BSOS’s internship advising appoint-ments, students share their interests with Program Director for Experiential Learning Kathryn Hopps, who curates a database to illustrate where BSOS students have previously interned, shares internship employment reviews and provides insightful advice. Through the “Be Employable: Ask a BSOS Intern” pro-gram, senior student ambassadors share internship experience and answer questions. This event also features a station where students can get a quick resume review.

UCC @ BSOS also helps students, faculty and staff stay on top of employment trends.

“We are in a stage right now where employers want students to be delivered to them already well-trained and knowledgeable in their fields,” said Dr. Katherine F. Russell, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs. The Center is helping to meet this high expectation by providing additional resources and connec-tion points for students to engage in experiential learning and career preparation while still in college.

Students are encouraged to engage with UCC @ BSOS and with the University Career Center & The President’s Promise during freshman year, but it is never too late or too early to explore these resources, both online and in person. Learn more at ter.ps/uccbsos. •

College Headlines

Faculty, staff and student workers of the University Career Center @ BSOS in Tydings Hall

“We are in a stage right now where

employers want students to be delivered

to them already well-trained and

knowledgeable in their fields.”Dr. Katherine F. Russell

http://ter.ps/uccbsos


Transformative BSOS Facilities UpdatesThe College has made great strides recently toward renovating and improv-ing its facilities in a sustainable and cost-effective manner.

A tremendous investment of time and available resources has been made to renovate the entire north side of the first floor of the Biology-Psychology Building to update the main offices, administrative spaces, select faculty offices, and seminar and meeting rooms of the Department of Psychology. This project is scheduled to be com-pleted in the summer of 2015. For the first time, there will be an impressive and clearly marked entrance to the department. “You now feel that ‘you have arrived’ at the Department of Psychology,” Director of BSOS Facilities Dona Morgan said.

Another significant project in Bio-Psyc is the installation of a new histology

lab for Dean Gregory Ball and Professor Robert Dooling. This lab, which will be open later this summer, also offers collegial space and lab space for other researchers to utilize.

Woods Hall was recently renovated with improved meeting spaces and faculty and staff offices for the Department of

Anthropology on the first and second floors. A new “storefront” entrance was created for the department, with glass doors and quotation artwork and photog-raphy relevant to the department’s mission and research themes. These significant improvements follow similar efforts in Taliaferro Hall for the African

American Studies Department. New MLAW Programs offices were also recently established on the ground floor of Taliaferro.

Numerous improvements have been made to Tydings Hall, including revamped infrastructure and HVAC

systems as well as a beautiful suite hous-ing the Advising Office and the new University Career Center @ BSOS (see story opposite page). Significant improvements have been made to the large lecture hall in Tydings on the ground floor, with another classroom being revamped this summer. A new multipurpose meeting room on the third floor of Tydings features advanced tele-conferencing capabilities.

Students are taking advantage of the new study and meeting area in the main lobby of Tydings, which features comfortable seating. The College was also proud to open a new multipurpose student space in Tydings on the second floor. The Cade

N. Kearn Family Study Room was made possible by the generous contri-butions of alumna Carolyn Kearn; her husband, Eric; and the Kearn family.

Morrill Hall has also undergone a sig-nificant restoration. The building is rich in campus history; it opened in 1898 and is one of only two buildings on campus in proximity to the great fire of 1912 to survive the catastrophe. It has the longest period of continuous service of any cam-pus building. It has been visited by teams of paranormal experts, as it is rumored to be haunted. Now, Morrill for the first time is home to a new Cognitive Lab for the Department of Hearing and

Speech Sciences (HESP), as well as the Maryland Population Research

Center (MPRC) and the Office

of International and Executive

Programs (OIEP).

Most MPRC Seminars are held in the large conference room on the first floor of Morrill. The second floor features a meet-ing room with a capacity of 10-12 persons and includes state-of-the-art teleconfer-encing capabilities. This floor also houses graduate student and faculty flex-space, 10-12 laptop and computer workstations

equipped with specialized tools, dedicated space for Center graduate assistants, post-docs, and visiting scholars, as well as the Migration Lab. The third floor houses the MPRC Computing Core, which features a Secure Data Laboratory that has been expanded to include six work stations. The area also features a “breakout” space for meetings and collaborative conversations. View photos at popcenter.umd.edu.

OIEP is now located on the second floor of Morrill. As OIEP conducts research, teaching and training between BSOS and UMD with partner universities, agencies and organizations in the United States and abroad, their improved videocon-ferencing capabilities and beautiful new meeting spaces are a significant boon. View photos at oiep.umd.edu.

HESP will soon get a revamped main office area in LeFrak Hall, with updated seminar and administrative spaces.

Each of these improvements has been made possible by BSOS and University leadership, central Facilities Management and by BSOS Facilities. •

The newly renovated Morrill Hall is now home to the MPRC and OIEP.

http://popcenter.umd.edu

oiep.umd.edu


College Headlines

BSOS Leading the Way toward Campus Sustainability One of the College’s core commitments is to advance global sustainability, and the BSOS community is working together to make our campus green. The BSOS Sustainability Plan is the first of its kind at a college level, and was designed to serve as a guide for other colleges to improve the sustainability of the campus as a whole.

This plan was drafted by the BSOS Sustainability Task Force, which was con-vened by the Dean’s Office with the sup-port and encouragement of the Dean’s Student Advisory Council (DSAC) and interested faculty and staff. Read the plan at ter.ps/greenbsos.

The plan’s lead implementer is Amee Bearne, BSOS’s first Sustainability Coordinator, who works closely with administrators, faculty, staff, students and the campus Sustainability Office to ensure that the College is in compliance with University initiatives, and to help foster innovations within BSOS. Bearne regularly meets with student Task Force members to discuss ideas and to dissemi-nate best practices as part of the student-led “BSOStainable” initiative.

Bearne also chairs a team of Green Office representatives from across the College who are taking the lead in moving all BSOS offices toward campus Green Office certification. A number of BSOS Offices have already received Bronze certification, including the BSOS Dean’s Office and the Department of Anthropology. The Department of Geographical Sciences has earned Silver certification.

BSOS also is home to the campus’s first LEED Gold-certified renovated building, Chincoteague Hall.

At the academic level, numerous BSOS courses in Anthropology, Environmental Science and Policy, Geographical Sciences and Government and Politics have been approved toward UMD’s Sustainability Minor, and about half of the students participating in the Environmental Science and Policy major choose tracks offered by BSOS departments.

The College is committed to working with partners across campus and outside the University to promote positive envi-ronmental change. In February, BSOS and the School of Public Policy hosted the second annual D.C. Area Climate and Energy Research Workshop on the College Park campus. Led by Assistant Professor of Government and Politics Jennifer Hadden and Associate Professor of Public Policy Nathan Hultman, the workshop promoted collaboration among local scholars and provided feed-back on current research projects related to climate and energy.

To connect with BSOS sustainability lead-ers, contact [email protected]. •

The BSOS Sustainability Plan is the first

of its kind at a college level, and was designed

to serve as a guide for other colleges to improve

the sustainability of the campus as a whole.

Read the plan at ter.ps/greenbsos.

http://ter.ps/greenbsos

mailto:[email protected]

http://ter.ps/greenbsos


Researcher Leads Study on Kinship Support in AfricaAn NIH-funded and UMD-led proj-ect will explore how single mothers in Kenya are supporting their children amid shifting support from kin.

In villages across Kenya and other rural areas of eastern Africa, men and women face a challenging dilemma. With children to care for, do they move away from their local support structure and family in search of more promising employment opportunities, or do they remain in rural areas where a number of pervasive challenges threaten the well-being of their family?

Often, families are choosing to depart their rural homes and head for rapidly growing urban centers like Nairobi, the capital and largest city of Kenya. Many of these families establish their new homes in the expansive slums surrounding the city and subsequently face great financial uncertainties. Moreover, many of these parents are single mothers, who have the additional challenge of taking care of their young children. How do they do it? Can they rely on continued support from extended family? Is the father of the child in the picture? Who else is part of their social support network?

To answer these questions, Dr. Sangeetha Madhavan, Associate Professor in the African American Studies Department, has received an R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study kinship support for single moth-ers in one slum community in Nairobi. Working with colleagues at McGill University in Montreal and the African Population Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi, Dr. Madhavan will lead a two-year project to pilot test a new survey instrument to collect data on the quantity and quality of support that single mothers and their children receive from kin and non-kin.

“The data currently being collected in most surveys is limited to the house-hold, thus missing other critical sources of support. Moreover, we really have no idea to what extent the extended family system provides support to single moth-ers in newly urbanized communities in Africa,” said Dr. Madhavan. “We’re not sure if these mothers can rely on family for support if they have chosen to move to urban locations. We also do not know who is complementing or substituting for kinship support.”

Leveraging cutting-edge technology, Dr. Madhavan and her colleagues will be collecting and analyzing geographi-cal information to help determine how distance from family, geo-location and other quantifiable metrics also impact the support these mothers receive. The tablet computers being used to adminis-ter the application-based questionnaires are capable of simultaneously collecting survey data and location information through interactive maps, resulting in a multidimensional array of data on social support.

Though experimental, the survey tools will be collecting information that has potentially massive payoffs, domestically and abroad.

“We believe that this instrument can greatly improve our ability to collect data that better reflects the challenges and opportunities that these women face in such circumstances,” Dr. Madhavan said. “If we can identify the gaps in support and what causes them, we can help orga-nizations like the World Bank explore effective assistance and subsidy programs in the region. The identification of these gaps, and early intervention to support the single mothers, can make a real dif-ference in their lives and the lives of their children.”

Madhavan spent a week in Nairobi in January conducting training and pilot-ing of the survey instrument with a team of seasoned researchers and interviewers from the APHRC, Madhavan’s graduate student from UMD, Mark Gross, and her co-investigator, Shelley Clark of McGill University. •

AASD News

Dr. Madhavan (far left) visited Nairobi in January for her new, NIH-funded research project.


In the Wake of Tragedies, BSOS Leads Critical Social Dialogues

This academic year, the African American Studies Department (AASD) and a number of other BSOS units brought together members of the campus and College Park communities through a series of important events to discuss national and international social events concerning race and cultural relations. Amid protests on campus and across the country, many concerns arose about excessive police force, justice, structural racism and the justice system. The College and the entire campus community were eager to respond and to build solidarity.

“Recent events across the country raise a number of profound questions about the state of our nation and how we deal with the issues of race and class as they relate to the administration of justice. These timely topics are among the fundamental social problems that we in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences address in our research and coursework,” Dean Gregory Ball said. “The numerous events our units have organized are a great example of how we in BSOS engage the University and College Park communities to work toward our goal to be the solution to some of the most difficult problems fac-ing our country and our world.”

More than 300 students, faculty, staff, alumni, administrators and College Park residents gathered in the Atrium of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union to make their voices heard at a Ferguson Town Hall organized by AASD in December. There, distinguished interdisciplinary panelists analyzed how social media is changing our responses to tragedies, out-lined the differences between laws on the books and enforcement methods on the streets, and discussed how open conversa-tions between people of different races on important topics need to happen more frequently.

Dr. Rashawn Ray, director of the Critical Race Initiative and an assistant profes-sor in the Department of Sociology, said that the majority of Americans have only three discussions about race with some-one of another race in their lifetime. “We need to have these conversations with people not in this room,” he said.

Professor Ray later presented “What if Trayvon didn’t have on the hoodie? Race, Criminalization and Stereotype Maintenance” before a large crowd of students, faculty, staff and community members in the Art-Sociology building. In that same room, Assistant Professor of Government and Politics Kanisha Bond led the first of a series of “Teach-Ins” on the #BlackLivesMatter movement held at the University. These events included “From Selma to Ferguson: Reimagining Civil Rights in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter,” which was hosted by AASD and featured Professor Peniel E. Joseph of Tufts University.

To view upcoming events at the College and its departments, visit bsos.umd.edu. •

AASD, GVPT and SOCY News

AASD Lecturer Jonathan England asks Ferguson Town Hall audience members to put their hands up if they knew about or agreed with powerful statements and statistics including, “Hands up if you knew that African-American males are more likely to be stopped by police.”

“The numerous events our units have organized are

a great example of how we in BSOS engage the

University and College Park communities to work

toward our goal to be the solution to some of the most

difficult problems facing our country and our world.”Dean Gregory Ball

bsos.umd.edu


AASD, GVPT and SOCY News

The Life and Legacy of Dr . Ellis R . Kerley, ‘The Forensic Sherlock Holmes’While many Terps are familiar with crime dramas such as Bones and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which feature forensics pro-fessionals using advanced technology to review remains and solve murder myster-ies, they might be surprised to learn that a University of Maryland professor is largely to thank for bringing forensic anthropol-ogy to the mainstream.

Dr. Ellis Kerley is known as the “forensic Sherlock Holmes”—through innova-tive and tireless research and examina-tion, he played a key role in solving cases of international importance. Closer to home, he was the founding chair of the Department of Anthropology, and was a beloved teacher, mentor and colleague whose legacy shapes the Department, the College and the University today.

Among countless high-profile cases, Kerley famously identified the remains of Nazi fugitive Josef Mengele; identified the remains of the crew members lost in the Challenger space shuttle explosion; and worked on the investigations of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald commissioned by the U.S. House of Representatives.

This type of work brought closure to the public, who sought answers to these widely followed cases. It also helped to earn legitimacy for the emerging science of forensic anthropology. Kerley’s work was instrumental in shaping and guid-ing the field into what it is today. He is particularly regarded for establishing the “Kerley Method,” a bone examination technique that helps researchers very pre-cisely identify the age of skeletal remains.

Kerley first fell in love with anthropology as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, where he enrolled after enlisting and serving as an Army rifleman

in Europe during World War II. He graduated in 1950 with a B.A. in physical anthropology—a field which he later put on the map as forensic anthropology. He continued his studies at the University of Michigan, where he created the Kerley Method as part of his dissertation. He then came to UMD in 1971, where he continued his pioneering research while also making his mark as a skilled admin-istrator and as a beloved instructor.

Working in an emerging field was not easy. Kerley had to seek out researchers at other universities, at law enforcement agencies and in the federal government who were doing similar work, and this small cadre of scholars and practitioners had to develop new methods to prove their theories and record their facts and findings. Kerley helped establish the Physical Anthropology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 1972, and became the first forensic anthropologist to serve as the academy’s president. In the late 1970s, he also helped form the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, which certifies forensic anthropologists across the country.

Today’s forensic anthropologists remain an elite and close-knit group—and nearly all can trace their knowledge and connec-tions back to Kerley. As a teacher, a scholar and a researcher, Kerley was committed to sharing his time and his expertise.

It also was important to Kerley to share his work with his family. He would often discuss cases with his wife, Mary, and their three daughters. While this made for unusual dinner conversation, it showed that Kerley was always thinking, always learning, always teaching. This passion for knowledge is part of what makes Kerley so beloved by the family, friends and col-leagues who remember him today.

The College is deeply grateful to the anonymous donor who recently estab-lished the Dr. Ellis R. Kerley Chair in Anthropology. Professor Paul Shackel, current chair of Anthropology, said the establishment of this endowed position is a significant milestone as the Department celebrates its 40th anniversary.

“Because of the generosity of one of our donors, we now have a named chair in Anthropology—named after a profes-sor who has made a lasting impact on this person’s life. This gift will enhance our ability to continue our trajectory of becoming one of the outstanding pro-grams in anthropology in the nation.”

While he retired in 1987 and passed away in 1998, Kerley’s impact on the University and in the field he founded is obvious today. The Department of Anthropology, which was once a branch of the Department of Sociology, flour-ished under Kerley’s leadership and legacy. It now boasts 40 faculty members and affiliate professors, and has added graduate programs. Learn more at anth.umd.edu. •Read more about Kerley and his legacy at Maryland and beyond in a Terp Magazine feature story: ter.ps/kerleyterp

Watch the BSOS video celebrating Kerley’s life, career and legacy: ter.ps/kerleyvideo

ANTH News

Dr. Ellis R. Kerley

anth.umd.edu

http://ter.ps/kerleyterp

http://ter.ps/kerleyvideo


ASC Honors Dr . Laure BrooksLaure Brooks (CCJS B.A. ’80, M.A. ’82, Ph.D. ’86), an Instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, recently won the Outstanding Teacher Award from the American Society of Criminology.

Dr. Brooks teaches the undergraduate research methods course and a course on policing. Her research interest is in the area of policing, in which she has studied police discretion, police stress and violence against police. She is also the faculty advisor for the CCJS Honor Society, Alpha Phi Sigma.

This prestigious award is among numer-ous honors Dr. Brooks has earned

over the years. She was the recipient of both the 2012 College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Dean’s Medal and the Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 1999 College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Excellence in Teaching Mentorship Award. She has been named a Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Mentor five times.

BSOS and CCJS congratulate Dr. Brooks on her achievements, and are grateful for her extraordinary contributions inside and outside the classroom.

To learn more about the research and achievements of the department’s distin-guished faculty, visit ccjs.umd.edu. •

CCJS News

CCJS Professors Address Gang Violence through Research Project

Professors Denise Gottfredson and Terence Thornberry recently received a National Institute of Justice award of nearly $500,000 for their research project, “Reducing Gang Violence: A Randomized Trial of Functional Family Therapy.” The research will produce knowledge about how to prevent at-risk youth from joining gangs and how to reduce delinquency among active gang members.

The project will evaluate a modification of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a model program from the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development initiative. This modification, FFT-G, was developed in an earlier phase of the research. A randomized trial testing this adaptation

is currently underway with funding from Smith Richardson Foundation. The long-term goal is the designation of FFT-G as a national Blueprint Model Program for a new and especially high-risk population, members of street gangs, thus providing the first known evidence-based program (EBP) for such youth.

In addition to scholarly articles and pre-sentations about the project, this research will produce a program model that is ready for broad dissemination, an existing dissemination mechanism, and a model for how public agencies can fund EBPs using existing funding streams. Given recent estimates that more than 782,000 gang members reside in the United States, this product is expected to have a large impact on community uptake of the model.

Read more at ter.ps/CCJSgrant. •

Professor Denise Gottfredson

Dr. Laure Brooks

Professor Terence Thornberry

ccjs.umd.edu

http://ter.ps/CCJSgrant


Announcing New Neil Moskowitz ProfessorIn recognition of her invaluable contribu-tions to the Department of Economics, Dr. Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan was named as the Neil Moskowitz Professor this spring. Dr. Kalemli-Ozcan joined the department in 2012, and concentrates on international macroeconomics, finance and growth. Her current work focuses on the linkages between real and financial sectors in a glo-balized economy and the effects of such linkages on economic fluctuations and development.

This professorship is named in honor of Neil Moskowitz (ECON ’80), who has had an illustrious career. Mr. Moskowitz has served as Managing Director of

Credit Suisse (USA); as CFO and COO of Credit Suisse First Boston; and spent 10 years at Goldman Sachs in various positions, including manager of U.S. and European equity operations. In 2001, he received the BSOS Distinguished Alumnus Award.

An inspirational alumnus and a loyal philanthropist, Mr. Moskowitz established the Martin Moskowitz Award Fund in 1994 in memory of his father, who was a lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2010, he created three new funds: the Hilda Moskowitz Graduate Fellowship in Economics, the Moskowitz Family Scholarship Award

in Economics and the Neil Moskowitz Professorship. In 2011, the College was delighted to announce the first Neil Moskowitz Professor, Allan Drazen, who will continue in this role along with Dr. Kalemli-Ozcan. •

Donors Help CCJS Acquire State-of-the-Art Forensic Comparison MicroscopeThe top-ranked Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCJS) recently acquired a piece of cutting-edge technology to enhance its innova-tive Crime Lab thanks in part to the generosity of donors. The new Forensic Comparison Microscope features two stages that allow users to view and com-pare two objects at the same time; for example, a bullet found in a body with a test bullet fired from a suspect’s weapon.

The microscope was initially used in a fully operational federal crime labora-tory in Miami and was purchased from I. Miller Precision Optical Instruments of Philadelphia after being completely reconditioned with new features needed to satisfy CCJS educational requirements. Thomas Mauriello, an adjunct lecturer and laboratory instructor who exclusively teaches one of the University’s most popular classes, CCJS 320: Introduction

to Criminalistics, was instrumental in bringing the microscope to campus.

“Students will now be able to test their knowledge and understanding of course content by examining bullets, shells, tool marks, hairs, fibers and other associated evidence from the mock crime scenes in Marie Mount Hall and determine if they are a match,” Mr. Mauriello said. “They already are able to do similar examina-tions with fingerprints, shoe prints and questioned document materials.”

The purchase of the microscope was made possible by support from the Department of Criminal Justice Fund, which advances the operations of CCJS, as well as the BSOS Dean’s Discretionary Fund.

“The contributions of alumni, students, staff and friends of the department to this fund help to enhance the educational experience of the next generation of law enforcement officers, members of the

military, academics and other profes-sionals who work to promote order and justice,” said Assistant Dean for External Relations Deborah Rhebergen. •

Lecturer Tom Mauriello tests the new Forensic Comparison Microscope in the Crime Lab in Marie Mount Hall.

Dr. Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan

ECON News


President’s Proposed Tax Credit Designed by ECON FacultyMelissa S. Kearney and Lesley J. Turner of the Department of Economics developed the second earner tax credit proposed by President Obama at the 2015 State of the Union address. Kearney outlined a policy proposal based on a December 2013 Hamilton Project paper she coauthored with Turner in person with President Obama over the summer, and said imple-mentation of the credit would make a positive difference for U.S. families and for the economy. Read the paper at ter.ps/taxpaper.

“I am absolutely thrilled to see the President propose a second earner credit. This is a simple fix to the tax code that would help address the unintentional, unfortunate second earner penalty inherent to the current U.S. system,” Kearney said. “The credit that the President is proposing is pro-work, pro-family, and targeted on low- and middle-income families. As such, it should earn widespread political appeal. It represents a step in the right direction and would offer economic relief to millions of working couples.”

In their paper, Kearney and Turner illustrate how the family-based nature of the U.S. federal income tax system leads to a secondary earner penalty. Specifically, the tax and transfer system has an inherent second earner penalty that discourages work efforts and reduces the return to work for a second earner within a married couple. For families headed by a married couple, spousal income is pooled, and the first dollar of earnings by a spouse—or second earner—is taxed at the marginal tax rate of the last dollar earned by the primary worker. When children are present, a spouse’s work efforts often bring associated child-care costs, making the return to work even lower.

Kearney and Turner’s estimates suggest that under the current federal tax and transfer system, and assuming standard child-care costs, a family headed by a pri-mary earner making $25,000 a year will take home less than 30% of a spouse’s earnings. To address this situation, the economists propose a secondary earner deduction for low- to moderate-income families. They show that this incremen-tal modification to the tax code would increase disposable income for low to middle class families with two earners.

Kearney and Turner are among several members of UMD’s Department of Economics who directly inform U.S. economic policy discussions and decisions. Professor Katharine Abraham was recently a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. The department’s chair, Dr. Maureen Cropper, has served as chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board Environmental Economics Advisory Committee and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. •

ECON News

Professor Melissa S. Kearney

Assistant Professor Lesley J. Turner

“The credit that the President is proposing

is pro-work, pro-family, and targeted

on low- and middle-income families.”Professor Melissa S. Kearney

http://ter.ps/taxpaper


Professor, Student Research Economic Stability in MalawiSenior economics major Sarah Lord joined Assistant Professor of Economics Jessica Goldberg and her collaborators last summer in Malawi to help them conduct research on how certain social and cultural factors affect savings decisions and lack of savings. Lack of savings means that people are unable to make profitable investments or cope when they experience household emergencies; Goldberg, Lord and their collaborators look for ways to help people improve their livelihoods by increasing their savings.

Through a partnership with the non-profit Innovations for Poverty Action, Goldberg and Lord worked to identify what keeps people from reaching the savings targets they’ve set for themselves, and what will help people reach their savings goals.

Their project was a randomized con-trolled trial that offered bank accounts to people living in villages in rural Malawi. The research team conducted censuses of villages in southern Malawi, then randomly selected 500 people to receive bank accounts that were labeled with a personal savings goal. An additional 500 people were offered accounts that were not labeled, and another group was not offered any savings accounts but followed as a control group. During her summer stay in Malawi, Lord was actively engaged in gathering data from those selected to receive bank accounts through the use of a baseline survey. Among many other things, Lord learned “what getting data actually looks like” in the context of a research field, as well as how to clean and prep the data sets so that they could be effectively used in the study.

Professor Goldberg said being on site and working with the field team in Malawi was a great experience, and one that allowed her student to “combine real-world intuition with economic theory,”

a skill that has led to a better perspective when reading academic research and tak-ing advanced economics courses.

The work in Malawi also led Lord to begin co-writing her senior thesis, with Professor Goldberg, on the reasons for dramatic price dispersion for simi-lar items throughout the region. Both Goldberg and Lord agree that the thesis work, as well as good research in general, require knowledge of what day-to-day life is like in the targeted region, some-thing that Lord was able to experience during her stay in Malawi.

Lord plans to pursue graduate studies in economics with a concentration in development after she graduates in May.

Professor Goldberg and her research team are still collecting data from the project. Other questions that the study will address include how having personal aspirations, receiving financial literacy training, and receiving cash versus account deposits have different effects on individuals reach-ing their savings goals.

Results from a related study that shows big effects of savings accounts on invest-ments and consumption have already been submitted for publication, and the research team is eager to learn more about the mechanisms through which these accounts operate.

Recognizing both the significance and potential global impact of the research, and the enriching opportunity for Lord’s academic and future careers, the BSOS Office of the Dean was pleased to pro-vide funding to cover Lord’s travel and make the experience possible, as other potential funding deadlines had passed.

Lord said she is grateful to BSOS donors, whose generosity makes it possible for the College to support this type of research and experiential learning. •


UMD/NASA Goddard Instrument to Fly on Space Station

NASA has selected a proposal developed by the University of Maryland and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for a new instrument that will join a growing suite of technologies deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) providing key observations about the Earth’s environment. The new instru-ment will provide unprecedented observations of the Earth’s forests and their response to changes in climate and land use.

“GEDI will provide the first global data set on forest structure sufficient to accurately map forest above-ground carbon. These data can then be used to estimate the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere that occurs from forest loss, say through fire, and the sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere as forests grow,” said Department of Geographical Sciences Professor Ralph Dubayah, the Principal Investigator of the project.

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Lidar will use a system of laser beams to map the three-dimensional structure of vegetation, including canopy heights, over a range of biomes including the temperate forests of North America, and tropical regions where rapid deforestation is occurring. GEDI offers scientists the means to answer key questions, including:

■ How has deforestation contributed to atmospheric CO2 concentrations?

■ How much carbon will forests absorb in the future?

■ How will habitat degradation affect global biodiversity?

“By far, the largest uncertainties in the global carbon cycle concern the net impact of forest disturbance and subsequent regrowth on atmospheric CO2. Without these data, we cannot accurately predict future global warming, nor its consequences, such as sea-level rise. Nor can we accurately project the impact of potential policy actions to mitigate warming, such as plant-ing trees or reducing deforestation,” Dubayah said.

GEDI will be completed in 2018 for a cost of $94 million. Upon deployment on the ISS, data from GEDI will be used to create a variety of products, including canopy height and struc-ture, forest carbon and its changes. In addition, these data will be used to drive global ecosystem models to assess the impacts of changes in land use on atmospheric CO2 under various future climate scenarios. Read more at ter.ps/spacestation. •

GEOG News

Professor Justice Receives Prestigious Pecora AwardProfessor Christopher Justice, Chair of the Department of Geographical Sciences (GEOG), received the prestigious Pecora 2014 Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions toward Understanding the Earth by means of Remote Sensing. He was presented with the award at a cer-emony in conjunction with the Pecora 19 symposium in Denver in November. Dr. Justice has dedicated his career to remote-sensing education, research and service; thus contributing to an improved compre-hension of the ever-changing Earth.

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey established the Pecora Symposium series in the 1970s as a platform to “foster the exchange of scientific information and results derived from applications of remotely sensed data to a broad range of land-based resources, and to provide a forum for discussing ideas, policies and strategies concerning land remote sensing.”

GEOG is an international leader in remote sensing research. To learn more, visit geog.umd.edu. •

Image of the International Space Station courtesy of NASA

Professor Christopher Justice

http://ter.ps/spacestation

geog.umd.edu


UMD Analysis of Satellite Data Shows Felling of Tropical Trees has Soared, Not Slowed

The rate at which tropical forests were cut, burned or otherwise lost from the 1990s through the 2000s accelerated by 62 percent, according to a new study. This dramatically reverses a previous estimate of a 25 percent slowdown over the same period. That previous estimate, from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Forest Resource Assessment, was based on a collection of reports from dozens of countries. The new estimate, in contrast, is based on University of Maryland analysis of vast amounts of Landsat image data which directly record the changes to forests over 20 years.

Department of Geographical Sciences researcher Do-Hyung Kim, Research Assistant Professor Joseph Sexton and former dean and Professor John Townshend looked at 34 forested coun-tries which comprise 80 percent of for-ested tropical lands. They analyzed 5,444 Landsat scenes from 1990, 2000 and 2005 with a hectare-scale (100 by 100-meter)

resolution to determine how much forest was lost and gained. Their procedure was fully automated and computerized both to make the huge datasets manageable and to minimize human error.

They found that during the 1990-2000 period, the annual net forest loss across all the countries was 4 million hectares (15,000 square miles) per year. During the 2000-2010 period, the net forest loss rose to 6.5 million hectares (25,000 square miles) per year—a 62 percent increase in the rate of deforestation. This rate is the equivalent to clear cutting an area the size of West Virginia or Sri Lanka each year, or deforesting an area the size of Norway every five years.

In terms of where the deforestation was happening, they found that tropi-cal Latin America showed the largest increase of annual net loss of 1.4 million hectares (5,400 square miles) per year

from the 1990s to the 2000s, with Brazil topping the list at 0.6 million hectares (2,300 square miles) per year. Tropical Asia showed the second largest increase at 0.8 million hectares (3,100 square miles) per year, with similar trends across the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines. Tropical Africa showed the least amount of annual net forest area loss. Still, there was a steady increase of net forest loss in tropical Africa due to cutting primarily in Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar.

Global forest change data used in this study are freely available via the Global Land Cover Facility. Learn more at glcf.umd.edu. •

The Kim, et al., result for each of the Landsat coverage periods in Brazil. “Several satellite-based local and regional studies have been made for changing rates of deforestation [during] the 1990s and 2000s, but our study is the first pan-tropical scale analysis,” explained University of Maryland geographer Do-Hyung Kim.

glcf.umd.edu


The Washington Post-UMD Poll Takes the Pulse of Maryland Voters

The University of Maryland has part-nered with The Washington Post to poll voters on key social and election-related issues in the state of Maryland. The partnership combines the world-class reporting, polling and public engagement resources of The Post with rigorous aca-demic analysis from BSOS’s nationally-renowned Department of Government and Politics (GVPT). The poll is designed to provide academics, students and mem-bers of the public with insight into both key races and the issues that matter to Maryland voters.

In early October, the first iteration of the poll focused on the Maryland governor’s race, and also gauged participant views on key topics including: immigration, taxes, education, gay marriage, abortion, job creation and healthcare.

Released just a few weeks after Gov. Larry Hogan took office, the second iteration of the poll revealed what Marylanders think he and his admin-istration should prioritize. Namely, Marylanders hope their legislators will make education a top priority when considering tax and expenditure issues.

When asked to identify what area should be cut the least if cuts have to be made in the state budget, 32 percent of respon-dents said K-12 education; 12 percent chose environmental services; 12 percent chose public safety; 12 percent chose transportation; 11 percent chose higher education; 10 percent chose health care; 6 percent chose multiple or other responses; 3 percent stated they wanted no cuts; and 2 percent had no opinion.

“As an additional indicator of the value Maryland residents place on education, there was overwhelming support for a proposal to offer free community col-lege tuition to those who qualify. Even after informing respondents that the state would have to pay 25 percent of the cost, 71 percent of respondents said they support this proposal,” said Associate Professor of Government and Politics Michael Hanmer.

While reporters from The Post use the poll’s results in their news reporting and analysis, GVPT plays a key role in mak-ing this information publicly accessible and utilizing it as an educational tool.

“The Washington Post-University of Maryland Poll has proven to be very beneficial for the citizens of the state

of Maryland, in that it delivers timely political and policy information. It also provides an opportunity for us to more thoroughly asses the issues that matter to the state and offer potential explana-tions and solutions to the most pressing problems,” said Associate Professor of Government and Politics Stella Rouse. “This collaboration helps bridge the communication gap that sometimes exists between research-based information and relevant public news.”

In addition to its impact as a public education tool, the poll also repre-sents a unique research opportunity for UMD students. Professors Rouse and Hanmer also are assistant director and research director, respectively, for The

Center for American Politics and

Citizenship (CAPC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit research institution at the University of Maryland which addresses major issues of governance. They have worked with students affiliated with CAPC on the design of the poll ques-tions and the analysis of its responses.

At The Washington Post, the poll is directed by Peyton M. Craighill, The Post’s polling manager, and Scott Clement, a polling survey research analyst for The Post.

After each iteration of the poll, GVPT and CAPC hosted public events on cam-pus featuring members of the Maryland legislature, staffers from The Post and UMD faculty, who offered insights on the polls and related results. These events gave students the opportunity to discuss pressing social issues with politicians, academicians and journalists.

The poll was designed to be administered twice a year. For more information on the latest poll, visit ter.ps/wapoumdpoll2. •

GVPT News

Expert panelists discuss results from the first iteration of The Washington Post-University of Maryland Poll at a campus event.

http://ter.ps/wapoumdpoll2


Professor Ratner Recognized with Prestigious AwardsProfessor Nan Bernstein Ratner, immediate past chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP), recently received two prestigious national awards: Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the designation of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Professor Ratner was recognized for her work in the psychology of language learning in typically-developing and communication disordered children. She was joined in this year’s cadre of Fellows by Dean Gregory Ball, who was honored for his contributions in the field of biological sciences.

Her ASHA Honors recognize Professor Ratner’s distinguished contributions to the field of speech, language and hearing sciences and disorders; Honors are the highest honor that the association bestows. BSOS and HESP paid tribute to Professor Ratner with a special reception at the ASHA convention in November. Many students, alumni, faculty and staff enjoyed the opportunity to congratulate Professor Ratner and to thank her for her immeasurable contributions to HESP and to the field.

“The most gratifying aspect of this award is that nominations for it come from your colleagues and students, rather than

a committee. Thus, receiving the Honors is, in a sense, a gift from those I treasure most—our Maryland family and alumni, my fellow researchers and teaching faculty, and others who I have had the privilege of working with over the years,” Professor Ratner said.

Professor Ratner also was recently named president elect of the International Fluency Association. For more information about her research and about HESP, visit hesp.umd.edu. •

HESP News

BSOS Congratulates New HESP Chair Rochelle NewmanThe College of Behavioral and Social Sciences congratulates Professor Rochelle Newman, who assumed leadership of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) as chair in July.

“Rochelle’s commitment to teaching and to student services—and her impressive and collaborative research portfolio—make her an excellent choice for chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences,” said Dean Gregory Ball. “We are very fortunate to have a new chair who has already demonstrated her leader-ship through her many contributions to our University, and to her field.”

Professor Newman previously served as director of graduate studies for HESP as well as for the Program in Neuroscience

and Cognitive Science. She also is an asso-ciate director of the Maryland Language Science Center. In 2013, Professor Newman was honored with the BSOS Outstanding Graduate Advisor award.

Her research focuses on speech percep-tion and language acquisition, specifically in how the brain recognizes words from fluent speech—especially in the context of noise—and how this ability changes with development.

“My goal is to make HESP one of the top-10 programs in the field within the next 10 years. To do that, I am work-ing to tap more fully into an already strong collaborative environment at the University, leveraging the strengths of the

rest of campus to both enhance and gain higher visibility for our research, clini-cal, outreach and educational activities,” Professor Newman said. •

Professor Ratner received Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association at the organization’s national convention in Orlando in April.

HESP Chair Rochelle Newman

hesp.umd.edu


JPSM Hosts D .C . DataFestIn April, JPSM hosted an American Statistical Association DataFest at the D.C. offices of Summit Consulting. There, student teams from several D.C.-area universities competed in a data-analysis event for prizes and for the attention of potential employers.

This weekend-long undergraduate competition was designed to find new and innovative ways of interpreting and using a single dataset. Event sponsors included Mathematica Policy Research, the American Institutes for Research, the Washington Statistical Society and the D.C. chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. •

PULSAR Offers Interdisciplinary Language Science Education

BSOS is proud to partner with several other units on campus to offer the new Program for Undergraduate Language Science Ambassadors in Research (PULSAR), an innovative interdisciplin-ary training opportunity geared toward undergraduate students. The University of Maryland has the largest and most integrated team of language scientists in North America, and PULSAR students are able to tap into this unique resource, providing them with opportunities beyond those found in their primary major.

PULSAR is run through the Maryland Language Science Center (LSC), which brings together the many different researchers, faculty and students at UMD who are interested in the study of language. In addition to several BSOS units, participating faculty

and students come from the College of Arts and Humanities; the College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences; the College of Education; the A. James Clark School of Engineering; and the School of Information Studies.

Seven BSOS students from the Departments of Government and Politics, Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP), and Psychology were among PULSAR’s first cohort of 12 students.

“PULSAR allows me to become more involved within Maryland’s language science community, and to make connec-tions with other undergraduate students interested in language science,” said HESP major Ashley Thomas. “The whole pro-gram really allows me to see how the world of language science exists outside of HESP.”

As members of PULSAR, students have opportunities to build research skills, develop relationships with scientific mentors, engage in outreach activities, and join a strong, collaborative group of peers. The program provides students with a breadth of experiences and training that can prepare them for careers in research, technology, education, health and public policy.

“We’re excited by the interest that PULSAR is attracting. The students have already developed a wonderful community, and they are bringing so many good ideas that are shaping the program. PULSAR is also getting attention from colleagues at other universities, who are looking to emulate the program,” said LSC Director Colin Phillips.

Learn more at ter.ps/pulsar. •

HESP, GVPT and PSYC News

JPSM News

HESP Chair Rochelle Newman (second from left) with PULSAR students, who presented a poster at UMD’s Language Science Day in September. Photo by John Consoli courtesy of the LSC.

http://ter.ps/pulsar


JPSM Pioneers Survey Methodology Education and PracticeThe Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM) is the nation’s oldest and largest program offering graduate training in the principles and practices of survey research. Founded in 1993, it is sponsored by the Federal Interagency Consortium on Statistical Policy and is located at the University of Maryland. To date, it has more than 220 graduates working in government agencies, academic settings and private survey research firms. Its award-winning faculty is drawn from the University of Maryland; the University of Michigan; and Westat, a statistical services company based in Rockville, Md.

JPSM’s mission is to educate the next generation of survey researchers, survey statisticians and survey methodologists. To that end, it offers both Ph.D. and M.S. degrees, an undergraduate minor, and certificate and citation programs. It also offers a program of short courses and a Summer Fellows program for undergraduates.

JPSM has both full-time and part-time students, many of whom are employed in federal statistical agencies, such as

the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Agricultural Statistical Service, as well as survey organizations including Westat, RTI International, the Gallup Organization, and Mathematica. Many of its full-time students are placed in summer internships at these and other organizations.

Stay tuned for information about JPSM’s new online program and its developing Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) specializa-tion by visiting jpsm.umd.edu. •

Faculty HonorsJPSM Director Frederick Conrad recently received the Warren Mitovsky Innovator Award, along with collabora-tor Michael Schober, for their work on conversational interviewing, the clarification of question meaning, the interpretation of standardized language, and the application of human dialogue features to web surveys. The award recog-nizes accomplishments in the field of public opinion and survey research that occurred in the past 10 years, or that had their primary impact on the field during the past decade.

Professor Frauke Kreuter was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. She has been in the forefront of the study of survey paradata and its uses in improving data collection and reducing nonresponse. She was recog-nized for outstanding contributions to research in the field of survey methodol-ogy; outstanding mentoring of junior researchers in social statistics and survey methodology; and for service to the profession.

David Morganstein, a JPSM adjunct faculty member and vice president at Westat, was elected the 110th president of the American Statistical Association for 2015.

JPSM and BSOS congratulate these faculty members on their accomplishments. For more information about JPSM’s renowned faculty, visit jpsm.umd.edu. •

JPSM News

Students at the University of Michigan often participate in JPSM classes at the University of Maryland by videoconference.

Watch the JPSM video at ter.ps/JPSMvideo

http://jpsm.umd.edu

http://jpsm.umd.edu

http://ter.ps/JPSMvideo


PSYC Professors Work to Unlock Childhood Memories

While many adults treasure their child-hood memories, it can be difficult to recall even the most meaningful experi-ences, such as holidays and family gather-ings, from this time. Assistant Professors Tracy Riggins and Elizabeth Redcay in the Department of Psychology are researching “autobiographical mem-ory”— memories of one’s personal life experiences—in their lab. They are specifically examining why most adults can recall very few, if any, memories from early childhood before the age of 6.

While lack of personal memories from early in life, or “childhood amnesia,” is quite common, it presents a paradox.

“Current research in developmental psychology has shown that when auto-biographical memory is examined in

young children, they are able to form and report on personal experiences during this period. What changes that renders memories from childhood inaccessible later in life remains unknown,” Professor Riggins said. “We feel it is important to study early autobiographical memory because it contributes to our self-identity and enhances our social ties with others. What we discover may also help improve children’s memories as well.”

Professors Riggins and Redcay were awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a study on the structural and functional devel-opment of brain regions known to play an important role in memory during childhood. In this study, 4- to 8-year-old children are invited to the lab and are asked to participate in memory games and activities, and then undergo an MRI brain scan.

The memory games involve tasks such as asking children to remember pictures, stories and recent events from their lives. The brain scan that follows these games allows researchers to examine memory-related brain structures such as the hippocampus, a subcortical region in the medial temporal lobe (roughly behind the ear). The hippocampus has been shown to be critical for memory in adults. In this study, they are examining how this region becomes functionally connected to other regions of the brain during development.

The study is designed to follow these same children for a period of three years in order to track changes in each child’s memory ability and brain development. The study’s multimodal and longitudinal approach will allow for the identification of neural trajectories that lead to age-related changes in memory performance.

The project involves both undergradu-ate and graduate students, who assist the researchers by recruiting participants and by conducting data collection and analysis.

The researchers predict that the study’s findings might unlock more than memories.

“Such systematic study of memory development in childhood has important implications not only for understand-ing memory in general, but will also provide critical information for targeted intervention and prevention strategies for populations at-risk for memory impair-ment and those diagnosed with neuro-developmental disorders known to affect the hippocampus and memory,” Professor Riggins said.

To learn more, visit ter.ps/NCDLlab. •

BSOS graduate student Katherine Rice with a child participant preparing to enter the MRI scanner

PSYC News

http://ter.ps/NCDLlab


Professor Lejuez Pioneers Mental Health Treatment in Middle EastProfessor Carl Lejuez, director of UMD’s Center for Addictions, Personality, and Emotion Research (CAPER), is the co-creator of Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression (BATD), a psychotherapeutic intervention that has proven effective in treating depression for thousands across the United States, including UMD students adjusting to campus life. Now, his pioneering mental health treatment methods are being used to help victims of systematic violence and trauma in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq.

“This work provides much-needed attention to difficulties with depression and anxiety many Kurds in Iraq continue to endure from a long and traumatic his-tory of torture. It shows great promise for a treatment approach that I developed at Maryland that helps individuals recon-nect with their values and rediscover how simple, everyday, pleasurable and important activities can assist their heal-ing process,” Lejuez said. “Most impor-tantly, the approach is straightforward and can be administered by entry-level clini-cians with minimal training, which can dramatically increase access to treatment across the region.”

Lejuez and his coauthors recently published “A randomized controlled trial of mental health interventions for survivors of systematic violence in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq” in BMC Psychiatry. The paper outlines the use of BATD and a second psychotherapeutic intervention referred to as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). CPT is designed specifically to treat trauma and was expected to be very effective with the issues this group was experienc-ing. Specifically, CPT involves several complex intervention components that directly tackle the trauma experienced

through written exposure and efforts to restructure cognitions that were maintaining the patient’s psychological difficulties, thereby seeking to help the patient develop more effective strategies to cope with their trauma experiences.

The use of BATD was quite novel and more “risky” for the presenting prob-lems of this population as it does not specifically target trauma but attempts to impact one’s overall psychological func-tioning. This, in turn, could have a posi-tive impact on specific conditions such as trauma, but also depression, anxiety and substance use. Because of the practical strengths of BATD, including the ease of training entry-level clinicians, the poten-tial to show that it could also positively impact the suffering of patients with a history of torture and other traumatic events is significant.

The treatments were administered by 20 community mental health work-ers in rural health clinics trained by Dr. Lejuez and others on the study team. The mental health workers received training in one of the treatments based on ran-dom assignment, and patients were then evaluated by blinded community mental health workers an average of five months after treatment. Of note, only BATD showed improvements in depression when comparing patients who received standard treatment in the same region of the country, and both treatments proved effective with trauma-related outcomes, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic grief. This study is the first of its kind to be tested in a region that has long suffered from poverty and violence.

Lejuez and his collaborators are confi-dent that BATD and CPT treatments can improve mental health outcomes

in many other regions, as the methods are cost-effective, easy to administer, and have proven results even in low-resource, high-risk regions. Moreover, because the approach is highly cus-tomizable and individualized, it can be modified as needed for patients to ensure needs and cultural factors in specific regions can be respected in the context of treatment delivery.

BATD and CPT treatments are currently used in multiple countries, including Argentina, China, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, to treat trauma as well as depression, anxiety and substance abuse with adults and youth under Dr. Lejuez’s leadership. Dr. Lejuez will travel to Columbia and to China to conduct similar trainings for health care workers later this spring.

The work has received funding from Tedco’s Maryland Innovation Initiative to develop a mobile app called Behavioral Apptivation that could be used to increase the treatment’s accessibility and outreach.

Read more at ter.ps/BATD. •

Carl Lejuez, Director of the Center for Addictions, Personality and Emotion Research

PSYC and CAPER News

http://ter.ps/BATD


New Documentary on Protests Features Professor Dana FisherFrom demonstrations across the United States in the wake of the Ferguson trag-edy to more than 1 million people filling the streets of Paris to show solidarity fol-lowing terror attacks in France, protests have shaped our global society in recent months.

In New York in September, tens of thou-sands turned out for the People’s Climate March, one of the largest environmental marches in history. Professor Dana R. Fisher, a sociologist, was there seeking

answers to basic questions: Why do individual citizens engage in the demo-cratic process, and how do protests come together?

Professor Fisher is the subject of “Political Action,” directed by Jamie Schutz. It’s the second film in “The Collectors,” a series of 10 short docu-mentaries from FiveThirtyEight and ESPN Films about the passionate people who collect data. Watch the video at ter.ps/fisherfilm. •

Beyond the Classroom: SOCY Senior Tony BeltonFor many college students, the course work alone can be overwhelming. For senior sociology major Tony Belton, it is just one aspect of a broad experiential education. Belton strives to make the most of every opportunity both inside and outside of the classroom. Majoring in sociology allows him to build an understanding of a wide variety of con-temporary social issues, and also provides insight into how people think.

One of his most rewarding experiences outside the classroom was serving as the security director of Student Entertainment and Events (SEE), a select group of stu-dents who work with advisors and student groups to develop engaging programming. There, he trained more than 100 members of the security team, worked with police officers, and served as part of the SEE Executive Board.

Belton now is the communications coordinator for Omicron Delta Kappa, a premier leadership honor society, and also has become extensively involved in the University Student Judiciary. He has held several Judiciary positions includ-ing community advocate, board member,

presiding officer and undergraduate coordinator. He was able to sit in on hearings and advocate on behalf of the University in cases in which students allegedly violated the Code of Student Conduct and Residence Hall Rules.

Belton chose to come to the University of Maryland “because of their out-standing Department of Sociology, top-ranked Army ROTC program, the many opportunities for students to get involved on campus, and the proximity to Washington, D.C.” While on campus, Belton has been a member of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) Dean’s Student Advisory Council and the BSOS Ambassadors program—two unique leadership programs that provide students in the College an opportunity to represent their classmates and their college, respectively.

“My experiences have inspired me to follow BSOS’s motto to ‘Be the Solution,’ and I look forward to carrying over the skills I have gained at Maryland into positions I may hold in the future,” Belton said. •

SOCY News

Professor Dana R. Fisher

In this photo illustration, Belton wears two of his “uniforms”: a professional suit and security gear.

http://ter.ps/fisherfilm


Bahá’í Chair Educates, Inspires Social ChangeThe Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland is an endowed academic program that advances inter-disciplinary examination and discourse on global peace. While drawing certain initial insights from religion, the program aims to develop a sound scientific basis for knowledge and strategies that lead to the creation of a better world.

The Chair’s incumbent, Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi, explores the role that social actors and structures play in removing obstacles and creating paths to peace.

As she has done consistently since join-ing the UMD community in 2012, Professor Mahmoudi this semester has designed an interdisciplinary and engag-ing line-up of public events that address a broad range of timely social topics.

In February, the Chair hosted a third installment of its series on Structural Racism and the Root Causes of Prejudice with a special event on racial and economic disparities in educa-tion. The symposium brought together Dr. Pedro A. Noguera from New York University and Dr. Odis Johnson, Jr. from Washington University in St. Louis—for-mer interim chair of UMD’s Department of African American Studies—who discussed statistics and possible solutions toward opportunity gaps between white, black, Hispanic and immigrant students in the United States. Watch the videos at ter.ps/johnson15 and ter.ps/noguera.

Later in the month, the Chair focused on exploring gender roles and masculinities by hosting Professor Michael Kimmel of Stony Brook University in New York, who presented “Mars, Venus, or Planet Earth? Women & Men on Campus in a New Millennium.” In his lecture, Dr. Kimmel surveyed the landscape

of current controversies about gender, suggesting that differences between women and men are socially constructed, and showed how men and women are transforming university campuses and cultures.

In March and April, the Chair presented the first two installments in its Series on Empowerment of Women and Peace.

Professor Farzaneh Milani of the University of Virginia presented “Iranian Women Writers: A Moderating and Modernizing Force,” describ-ing the role of contemporary Iranian women writers and suggesting that “while searching for justice and beauty, women writers and poets have advo-cated structural and systemic change in their society.” International author Bahiyyih Nakhjavani delivered “Persian Women and Other Lies: Story-Telling as Historical Retrieval.” Her new novel, The Woman Who Read Too Much, is rich in drama and political intrigue and set in Persia in the mid-nineteenth century, a society that clings to the old ways even as the world around it is rapidly transforming.

To learn more about the final event of the semester—“Global Governance in a Multiplex World” with Amitav Acharya of American University and “Private Authority in Global Governance” with UMD’s Virginia Haufler, as part of the Frontiers of Globalization and Governance Series—visit ter.ps/BC042915. The event will be held at 4 p.m. on April 29 in the McKeldin Library Special Events Room (6137).

In addition to its engaging events, the Chair continues to develop its flagship course—HONR 279L: “The Problem of Prejudice: Overcoming Impediments to Global Peace and Justice”— offered jointly with UMD’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The interdisciplinary course, which will debut in the Fall 2015 semester, explores how prejudices are formed and what we can learn from a scientific basis of knowledge about the causes of prejudice. Learn more at bahaichair.umd.edu and @BahaiChair.

“There is no better time in human his-tory for academic programs to explore and examine the social, spiritual and political solutions confronting humanity,” Professor Mahmoudi said. •

Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi

Peace Chairs News

http://ter.ps/johnson15

http://ter.ps/noguera

http://ter.ps/BC042915

bahaichair.umd.edu

https://twitter.com/bahaichair


Gibran Chair Celebrates Speeches, Writings of The Prince of Wales

Dr. Suheil Bushrui, the George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace, is widely recognized as the lead-ing authority in the field of Gibran studies. Scholars from around the world seek guidance from the Gibran Chair when publishing scholarly works on, or translations of, Gibran’s writings. Since it was formally inaugurated in 2009, the Chair has explored Gibran’s life and works, and, through them, has addressed moral and social determinants of public justice and peace. The Gibran Chair also brings together international thought leaders who work for peace.

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences joined with a global community of scholars in celebrating a preview of Speeches and Articles 1968-2012 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales (University of Wales Press) with a special event at the University of Maryland in October 2014.

This work for the first time offers a comprehensive overview of the ideas and ideals of Charles, Prince of Wales on a broad range of timely topics, from concern for the environment to the importance of spirituality. Edited by UMD Visiting Professor David Cadman and by Dr. Bushrui, the work features a foreword by Professor John Townshend, former dean of BSOS.

Professors Cadman, Bushrui and Townshend were joined at the event by President Wallace Loh, Chancellor Brit Kirwan, Dean Gregory Ball and Professor Paul Shackel, chair of the Department of Anthropology, in paying tribute to His Royal Highness and in honoring the international reach of the Gibran Chair. This extraordinary gathering of University leadership underscored the global significance of the work and also dem-onstrated the audience’s esteem for Dr. Bushrui.

“Dr. Bushrui lives the values he teaches. To be in his presence is to be in the presence of true spirituality. That is why he is so beloved and respected,” President Loh said.

The Gibran Chair has a long history of working with ground-breaking scholars and publishing works of international signifi-cance, including those written by authorities such as Professor Cadman and His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales.

A noted author on social, economic and environmental sustainability and on the importance of Love as a shap-ing principle, Professor Cadman served for a term as chair-man of what is now known as The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community and is a Trustee of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. In his remarks, Professor Cadman noted that The Prince of Wales has advanced international dialogue on matters of global significance, and has dedicated much of his life to the work of his charities and to helping some of the most disadvantaged people in society.

“In his speeches and writings over the years, His Royal Highness has shown, with great foresight, an awareness of humanity’s greatest challenges, including concerns about social, economic and environmental sustainability and about the need for understanding, tolerance and respect between the faiths,” Professor Cadman said.

In addition to speeches and writings by His Royal Highness, the new work contains beautiful, full-color reproductions of his watercolor landscapes. These works of art further demonstrate His Royal Highness’s love of and respect for nature, and his commitment to environmental sustainability.

As a treasured emeritus faculty member of the University, Dr. Bushrui is a sought-after scholar, guest speaker, lecturer, TV and radio commentator, and author. Learn more at ter.ps/GibranChair. •

Peace Chairs News

President Wallace Loh and Dr. Suheil Bushrui

Watch the video of the special Gibran Chair event at

ter.ps/Gibran

http://ter.ps/GibranChair

http://ter.ps/Gibran


Sadat Chair Polls Offer Invaluable InsightsShibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is an internation-ally renowned expert in the foreign policy arena. His groundbreaking public opinion surveys provide unique insight into the perspectives of Americans on critical events and relations in the Middle East and beyond. For more than a decade, he has also been conducting polls in the Arab world and Israel to probe public views on regional and international issues, much of which were analyzed in his 2013 book, The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East.

At the 2015 Sadat Forum: The Iran Nuclear Issue—Current State of Play, Dr. Telhami and his co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Steven Kull, released results from their new poll on American Public Policy toward Iran. This poll is co-sponsored by the Sadat Chair and the Program for Public Consultation. Read a report on the poll at ter.ps/IranPoll15.

Before a standing-room-only crowd in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union’s Colony Ballroom, Dr. Telhami moder-ated a panel discussion on the poll’s results and on a number of timely topics with renowned Middle East experts: Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, Career Ambassador with experience spanning five decades, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and member of the Iran Project; Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Distinguished Fellow and Former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and member of the Iran Project; and Dr. Suzanne Maloney, former Project Director for the Task Force on U.S.-Iran Relations at the Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Fellow in

Foreign Policy at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. Welcoming remarks were offered by President Wallace Loh and by BSOS Dean Gregory Ball.

This March 3 event coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress, in which he warned that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was “a bad deal” that would fail to stop Tehran from getting nuclear weap-ons, and that might put the Jewish State in a dangerous position. The panelists dis-cussed Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks, and also answered questions from the audience.

In another 2015 public opinion survey, Professor Telhami provides a detailed picture of American public attitudes toward ISIS and the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. The poll probes the complex and often divided reasoning behind public attitudes. American Public Attitudes toward ISIS and Syria is available at ter.ps/ISISSyria.

To learn more about Dr. Telhami’s research and Sadat Chair activities and polls, follow @ShibleyTelhami and @sadatchair or visit sadat.umd.edu. •

Dr. Telhami (far left) moderated a timely panel on The Iran Nuclear Issue at UMD in March.

Watch the video of The Sadat Forum: The Iran

Nuclear Issue—Current State of Play at

ter.ps/SadatForum15

http://ter.ps/IranPoll15

http://ter.ps/ISISSyria

https://twitter.com/shibleytelhami

https://twitter.com/sadatchair

sadat.umd.edu

http://ter.ps/SadatForum15


Improving Justice Outcomes through MDACSuccessfully improving the effectiveness, efficiency and fairness of the criminal justice system requires research- and evidence-based tactics and policies. Currently, the institutional capacities of criminal justice agencies to con-duct advanced and rigorous research is limited. The Maryland Data Analysis Center (MDAC) was recently established through the support of a $1.4 million grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to enhance data-driven decision-making across Maryland’s adult and juvenile justice agencies.

MDAC aims to transform the operational information generated by routine case processing in the criminal justice system into data that can be used by academic researchers. Ultimately, researchers will

analyze criminal justice outcomes and practices that will help leaders in the criminal justice system make better-informed decisions and policies. While productive episodic partnerships exist on a case-by-case basis between practitioners and researchers across Maryland, MDAC will ultimately foster a comprehensive and permanent collaboration between UMD researchers and external agencies, supported by development resources.

“By providing seed money for this venture, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation is supporting an innovative attempt to build a mutually-reinforcing relationship between Maryland crimi-nal justice agencies and our faculty,” said James Lynch, Professor and Chair

of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice (CCJS).

Representing the nation’s top-ranked academic program in criminology, CCJS faculty and doctoral students will bring to this partnership their formidable quantitative analytical capabilities. In turn, for the first time, researchers will gain access to comprehensive and vali-dated criminal justice operational data at the state level. MDAC will facilitate this partnership by gathering and maintaining the data infrastructure, linking data across state agencies, and serving as a liaison between state agencies and university researchers.

To learn more, visit ccjs.umd.edu. •

News from the Center for International Development and Conflict Management

Paul Huth and David Backer continue to lead a team that has been awarded a $2.5 million, three-year grant for the project “Aiding Conflict? The Impact of Foreign Assistance on the Dynamics of Intrastate Armed Conflict” through the Minerva Initiative of the U.S. Department of Defense. The project aims to evaluate the association between development aid and the likelihood, escalation, severity, spread, duration and recurrence of violence, spanning the phases before, during and after conflict.

Stacy Kosko, Assistant Director of the Minor in International Development and Conflict Management, has been selected to pilot a course for Global Classroom and Fearless Ideas. In the

course, “Innovation and Design for Entrepreneurship and Action in Peace and Development,” students will learn practical, applicable knowledge and skills through an intensive, problem-based and design-oriented experience.

The ICONS Project debuted a new simulation focused on international busi-ness, and their catalog offers 20 simula-tions suitable to a wide range of social science courses. They are working closely with UMD’s National Consortium on Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) on crisis response and commu-nication simulations for the University and for professional training contexts.

This spring, ICONS begins work on a cross-cultural conflict reduction simula-tion with Search for Common Ground-Morocco. cidcm.umd.edu •

BSOS Research Centers

The College is home to a number of major research centers, which are dedicated to the interdisciplinary exploration of critical topics, from substance abuse to environmental sustainability to international diplomacy. To learn more, visit ter.ps/bsoscenters.

Updates from Centers and More

ccjs.umd.edu

www.cidcm.umd.edu

http://ter.ps/bsoscenters


Highlights from the Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation & Crime (C-BERC)C-BERC embraces a unique interdisci-plinary approach to the legal and ethical challenges of modern business operations by integrating and extending research in the fields of business ethics, regulation and criminology. C-BERC’s scholarly work embraces multiple diverse perspec-tives and methods of analysis.

This September, Professor Michael C. Jensen, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, at the Harvard School of Business

Administration, delivered the keynote lecture “On Integrity” to open a daylong conference on Corporate Ethics and Malfeasance that featured distinguished panelists from UMD and other leading universities and industries.

C-BERC directors are developing a graduate certificate program and are building on cross-disciplinary training and research in ethics and law, foren-sic auditing, and compliance. Next fall, C-BERC will co-sponsor, with the

Bahá’í Chair for World Peace, a visit to campus on Nov. 16 by Professor John Braithwaite, Distinguished Professor and Founder of the Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University, who will deliver a campus-wide lec-ture as part of the Chair’s series on globalization and governance. Professor Braithwaite will also participate in a panel discussion on corporate regulation. ter.ps/CBERCUMD •

ECON Celebrates Launch of Maryland Center for Economics and PolicyThe Maryland Center for Economics and Policy (MCEP) connects Maryland faculty and students and the policy com-munity—making the policy-relevant research of UMD faculty more acces-sible; encouraging interchange between faculty, students and policy practitioners; and opening doors for students into the policy world.

MCEP also serves as a hub for faculty research and writing on numerous pol-icy-related issues. Recently highlighted research includes work on longevity annuities; the connection between labor market fluidity and economic perfor-mance; the effect of development aid on growth; and the factors that influence teen birth rates.

In March, the Department of Economics celebrated the launch of the MCEP with a special event for alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends in the McKeldin Library Special Events Room.

MCEP Director Professor Katharine Abraham and Maureen Cropper, Distinguished University Professor and

Chair of the Department, offered wel-coming remarks and outlined the mission of this unique venture.

The event also featured a program, moder-ated by Professor Abraham, on the Future of Housing Market Policy. The audience heard from three exceptional panelists: alumnus Edward DeMarco of the Milken Institute Center for Financial Markets and former head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; alumnus Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors; and Professor

of Public Policy and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Phillip Swagel.

“This event was a wonderful opportunity for our community to hear from a set of people who have been front and center in rethinking housing policy in the years since the real estate collapse at the start of the recent recession,” Professor Abraham said. “I am very grateful for the support we have received to make this and the rest of the work we are doing possible.”

Learn more at mcep.umd.edu. •

Expert panelists discussed the Future of Housing Market Policy at the MCEP launch in March.

http://ter.ps/CBERCUMD

http://mcep.umd.edu


CESAR Receives $3+ Million from NIH to Bolster National Drug Surveillance System

BSOS’s Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) is receiving five years of funding—approximately more than $3 million—from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, to develop an innovative National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS). This system will monitor newly emerging trends that will enable public experts to respond quickly to potential outbreaks of

illicit drugs such as heroin and to iden-tify increased use of designer synthetic compounds. The system will not only use traditional national- and regional-level data resources, but will also scan social media and Web platforms to identify new trends in potentially harmful drug use.

“NDEWS promises to provide the country with critically needed real-time information about changing drug use

patterns in communities across the coun-try,” said lead investigator Dr. Eric Wish, director of CESAR. “It will utilize social media and other innovative technologies to identify emerging drugs and trends and to quickly disseminate important findings to experts and interested citizens. This opportunity builds on CESAR’s 20-plus years of experience monitor-ing and reporting on emerging drugs.” cesar.umd.edu •

MLAW Gives Undergraduates Legal Education Experience

In just over a year of operation, MLAW Programs has offered scores of events, courses, internships, field trips and lectures that give undergraduate students a unique glimpse into legal education and the legal profession. In addition to learning about law, students are encouraged to use it to change their lives and the lives of those around them. Driven by MPower, MLAW is a state-of-the-art collaboration between the University of Maryland and the University of Maryland Francis King

Carey School of Law that affords students unparalleled opportunities to interact with a wide range of diverse and intellectu-ally stimulating legal professionals and communities.

In the fall, MLAW welcomed its first cohort of about 130 students, 65 in each of two academic programs: the College Park Scholars Program in Justice and Legal Thought for freshman and sopho-more students, and the Law and Society minor, an 18-credit, upper-level learning opportunity. In both programs, stu-dents are introduced to law and society scholarship through courses taught by UMD and Carey School of Law faculty across a wide variety of departments and programs. Both programs emphasize experiential and interdisciplinary teach-ing and learning.

Undergraduate students of all majors are welcome in MLAW Programs. Many of the MLAW opportunities, such as service projects in and around Washington, D.C.; trips to the Supreme Court and the Maryland Court of Appeals; and mock law classes are open to the larger University of Maryland student community.

Alumni are also helping to enrich the program’s scope. They have visited classes to help students draw connec-tions between readings and real-world scenarios. This spring, a new internship partnership with the prestigious law firm Akin Gump has been made possible through collaboration with Akin partner and UMD alumnus Larry Tanenbaum. The firm is working with the Washington Law Clinic for the Homeless to train and host students for an administrative law project designed to help D.C.’s homeless and disabled populations.

This summer, MLAW launches its Young Scholars Program with a Mock Trial experience for high school students, who will earn three university credits in three weeks while gaining research, oral argu-ment and writing skills.

MLAW is directed by Robert Koulish, Joel J. Feller Research Professor in Government and Politics at UMD and Lecturer of Law at the Carey School of Law. mlaw.umd.edu. •

Updates from Centers and More

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Dean Donald Tobin teaches a mock law class on taxes for UMD undergraduates.

cesar.umd.edu

mlaw.umd.edu


Scholarships Honor Cherished Family MembersThrough the establishment of the Robert Royce Woodward Endowed

Scholarship for a student in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Robert Satterfield (ECON ’95) made a philanthropic commitment to promote the lasting legacy of his role model, his grandfather. ter.ps/woodwardfund

Karin E. Young (M.A. HESP ’89) passed away suddenly in January. Karin and her family are members of the Terrapin family—her husband, Scott

Young, has worked in Resident Life for 24 years, and they met on campus during graduate school. They have two daughters, both students at the University of Maryland. To honor and remember Karin, her family established The Karin

E. Young Memorial Endowment for

Hearing and Speech Sciences, which will provide scholarships for under-graduate students in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences who are interested in pursuing a career in audiol-ogy. The BSOS community is honored to remember Karin through the awarding of this scholarship in perpetuity. ter.ps/karineyoung •

Be the Solution Fund Honors Former Dean TownshendIn celebration of Professor John Townshend’s tenure as our dean, BSOS is proud to announce a special giving challenge.

Professor Townshend would like our stu-dents, faculty, staff and alumni to continue working together to “Be The Solution” to the world’s greatest challenges. This new fund will help our students meet that goal through their studies, research and experi-ential learning opportunities. The Be The Solution Fund will provide scholarship support exclusively for our students—to help them Be the Solution during their time at Maryland and beyond. Scholarship opportunities include Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarships and

Faculty Mentor Stipends, Graduate Summer Research Fellowships, Renewable First Year Merit Scholarships, Need Based Scholarships for BSOS Rising Seniors, and Be The Solution Awards for programs including study abroad, internships and extracurricular opportunities.

The BSOS Board of Visitors has pledged $50,000 in matching gifts to establish this fund. The Board challenges the BSOS community to help us raise an additional $50,000 to reach a target of $100,000!

Join the effort by making a gift today in honor of Professor Townshend! ter.ps/BTSfund •

Donors Make a Difference

Previously, Dean Ball served as Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Vice Dean for Science and Research Infrastructure in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at JHU. His academic research and theories have received continuous support from the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years. He also is the recipient of JHU’s George Owen Teaching Award and its

Alumni Association Teaching Award in observance of his exemplary undergradu-ate instruction.

Recently, Dean Ball was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition for his contributions to the field of biological sciences. Professor Nan Bernstein Ratner of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences was also

named a Fellow this year, in recogni-tion of her contributions to the field of psychology. (See page 15.)

Dean Ball holds a B.A. in psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in psychobiology from the Institute of Animal Behavior at Rutgers University. He completed his postdoctoral work in Comparative Neuroendocrinology and Ethology at Rockefeller University.

New Dean from page 1

continued on page 28

Professor John Townshend

http://ter.ps/woodwardfund

http://ter.ps/karineyoung

http://ter.ps/BTSfund


Be in Touch!BSOS encourages our alumni to stay in touch! Tell us about your personal and career accomplishments, and your best Terp memories. Learn about upcoming events and activities, and feel free to suggest programming ideas. To learn more, visit bsos.umd.edu or contact Assistant Director for Alumni Relations Jenny Kilberg at [email protected] or 301.405.2998.

Class NotesWe want to share your good news! Please send us a brief description about births, marriages, new jobs, recent promotions and/or professional and educational accomplishments. Updates can be sent to: [email protected].

Please be sure to include your:

• First and last name

• Former last name, if applicable

• City/state

• E-mail address

• Year of graduation

• Degree/major

bsos.umd.edu

Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/bsosumd

Follow us on Twitter: @bsosumd (twitter.com/bsosumd)

The College of Behavioral & Social Sciences boasts 10 diverse, interdisciplinary departments and programs, all committed to investigating and improving the human condition.

College of Behavioral & Social Sciences: Be the Solution African American Studies: Be Empowered Anthropology: Be Cultural Criminology & Criminal Justice: Be Just Economics: Be Efficient Geographical Sciences: Be Global Government & Politics: Be Civil Hearing & Speech Sciences: Be Heard Joint Program in Survey Methodology: Be Counted Psychology: Be Understood Sociology: Be Social

Joining BSOS is a homecoming for Dean Ball. He grew up in the D.C. area, and his family moved to University Park to accommodate his father’s position with the Department of Agriculture in nearby Beltsville, Md., and his mother’s posi-tion at the University of Maryland as the administrative assistant of what is now the School of Public Health. His brother, Michael O. Ball, is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research and Professor in the Robert H. Smith School of Business. Dean Ball’s sister and nephew are Maryland alumni, while his niece is a BSOS alumna. His connections also extend across the System, as his wife, Margaret McCarthy, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Dean Ball has returned to Maryland at an ideal moment when the University is joining the Big 10 and expanding its capacity for innovative research. He is eager to help BSOS capitalize on every opportunity to grow in scope and impact.

“Here at Maryland, with the level of research and teaching happening on campus, and through our connections to D.C., we have tremendous capacity to create learning opportunities that are far above and beyond the traditional. We are perfectly poised to be part of the search for new knowledge. We work with people who are pushing the boundaries of their field,” Dean Ball said. “I’m eager to develop synergies both within our unique combination of departments and externally through our new partners in the Big 10 and beyond. As we say around here, I’m grateful to be in this extraordi-nary position to ‘Be the Solution’ to the world’s great challenges.” •

New Dean from page 27

Printed with soy-based inks on recycled paper.

www.bsos.umd.edu

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:bsosalumni%40umd.edu?subject=

www.bsos.umd.edu

www.facebook.com/bsosumd

www.twitter.com/bsosumd

www.twitter.com/bsosumd

be the solution spring 2015

Documents