Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

 Linda Charmaraman joined the Wellesley Centers for Women in September 2006 as a National Institutes of Child and Human Development (NICHD) Postdoctoral Research Fellow for 2 years. She joined WCW and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time as a Research Scientist in 2008. In August 2006, she completed work toward her Ph.D. in Human Development and Education from the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. Her dissertation is entitled Cognitive and Social Development Through Digital Media Construction in an Urban After-School Community. Dr. Charmaraman's research interests center on bridging societal gaps, ranging from 21st century media literacies to positive urban youth development. She has written articles about urban adolescent development in such areas as youth agency, racial/ethnic identity, sexuality, media cultures, and interpersonal violence.

Collaborating with Teen Voices (www.teenvoices.com), Linda is principal investigator of a multi-media strategy project, funded by the Schott Foundation, to promote public awareness of the road to educational equity for girls of color. This year-long project will include producing a video to disseminate widely on social network sites to multiple audiences and educational stakeholders. She is also the PI of research on constructing online surveys and strategies for targeting underrepresented young people, funded by the WCW 35th Anniversary Fund. This study will provide researchers with explicit procedures to design and implement accessible and culturally sensitive online surveys, with the main goal of targeting and recruiting diverse, hard-to-reach populations of youth nationwide using novel recruitment procedures.

Her current evaluation projects include the Planned Parenthood middle school comprehensive sex education evaluation, West Michigan Center for Arts & Technology afterschool program, and the Kellogg funded evaluation of teacher quality through the National SEED Project on Inclusive Curriculum, led by Peggy McIntosh. Recently completed projects include CDC-funded research on middle school bullying and sexual violence, collaborating with Nan Stein (WCW) and Dorothy Espelage (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign); the NICHD-funded Mixed Ancestry Measurement Pilot Project, led by Sumru Erkut; evaluating BE SAFE, a youth prevention initiative aiming to increase afterschool program staff and youth knowledge regarding sexual and mental health, substance abuse, and violence; evaluating Out of Harm’s Way, a Boston-based initiative attempting to eliminate violence as a barrier to learning and healthy development in middle school students. Linda has published in both peer-reviewed journals and edited books (Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of Youth & Adolescence, Learning, Media, & Technology; New Directions for Youth Development, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Sociological Studies of Children & Youth) as well as publications intended for practitioner audiences (Afterschool Matters, School-Aged Notes).

Dr. Charmaraman was recently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Asian American Psychology at Wellesley College and a guest lecturer at Boston College. She received her B.A. from UC Berkeley with a double major in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Studies, concentration in Cognition & the Learning Process. Her keen interest in improving the educational experience for overlooked urban youth developed from over a decade of volunteer work as an afterschool tutor, mentor, and coordinator in the Bay Area. Throughout her doctoral program, she was the coordinator of graduate student diversity recruitment in her department and an appointed student delegate of the Equity Committee. For over six years, she maintained a strong commitment to providing a forum for women artists and activists to be showcased by being a host/producer of a local "Womyn in the Arts" radio show, collaborating with the Empowering Women of Color Conference, and directing the Women of Color Film Festival in the Bay Area. She was also on the Advisory Board for the national women's film festival, Lunafest, which raises money for the Breast Cancer Fund and local nonprofit organizations.