About the Author: Linda Burton, Ph.D., is Dean of Social Sciences, Co-Director of the International Comparative Studies Program, and the James B. Duke Professor of Sociology at Duke University. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and the William T. Grant Faculty Scholars Advisory Board. She was recently a member of the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Child Maltreatment Research, Policy, and Practice for the Next Decade. Dr. Burton directed the ethnographic component of Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study and is principal investigator of a multi-site team ethnographic study (Family Life Project) of poverty, family processes, and child development in six rural communities. Her research integrates ethnographic and demographic approaches and examines the roles that poverty and intergenerational family dynamics play in the intimate unions of low-income mothers, the lives of African American men and boys, and the accelerated life course transitions of children, adolescents, and adults in urban and rural families.
Dorian Burton, Ed.L.D., is the Program Officer at the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust in Chapel Hill, NC, a foundation that supports education advancement at all levels with programs and activities that hold exceptional value. He was formerly the Co-Director of The TandemED Initiative for Black Male Achievement and Community Improvement at Harvard University Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and was the Wasserman Foundation Fellow in the Doctor of Education Leadership Program at Harvard. Prior to Harvard, Dr. Burton worked as an independent consultant with various non-profits and school districts between Harlem, NY; Houston, TX; and Newark, NJ. In his role as a consultant, Burton worked to provide strategic support to Newark Public School principals in the launch of their Renew School Turnaround initiative. In addition, he worked in a special projects role to develop external partnerships for the Harlem Children's Zone College Success Office.
Susan McHale, Ph.D., is Director of the Social Science Research Institute and Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Professor of Demography at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on children's and adolescents' family roles, relationships, and daily experiences and how these family dynamics are linked to youth development and adjustment. Dr. McHale's research highlights family gender dynamics, including how differential family experiences of sisters and brothers are linked to the choices they make in the areas of education, work, and family formation. Dr. McHale also investigates the socio-cultural contexts of family dynamics including how parents' and youths' values, practices, and daily experiences have implications for family life and youth adjustment in African American and Mexican American families. Most recently her work has extended to the links between family dynamics, particularly family stressors, and youths' physical health.
Valarie King, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology, Demography, and Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, and is the Director of the Family Demography Training Program at the Population Research Institute. Her research focuses on intergenerational relationships across the life course and their implications for the health, well-being, and development of family members. Her work has been published in numerous outlets including American Sociological Review, Demography, Journals of Gerontology-Social Sciences, and Journal of Marriage and Family. Dr. King's most recent work focuses on elucidating the factors that promote the development of strong ties between children and their stepfathers, and the ways in which stepfathers can promote children's well-being. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Marriage and Family and Journal of Family Issues.
Jennifer Van Hook, PhD., is Professor of Sociology and Demography and Director of the Population Research Institute at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses how extended family networks and family relationships serve as a social resource and constraint for immigrants and their children in the United States. Dr. Van Hook's work spans a variety of family-related topics, including extended family living arrangements, family poverty, cohabitation, inter-racial marriage, and fertility patterns, and has appeared in major journals such as the Journal of Marriage and the Family, International Migration Review, Social Forces, and Demography. Her most recent work focuses on the relationship between immigration, family, and health outcomes among young children of immigrants.