Who We Are

The Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab grows out of the expertise, interests, and experiences of seasoned and emerging scholars committed to exploring adolescent development and the various factors that contribute to their identity and wellbeing. A project of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, the Lab builds off the legacy of deep social science research that grows out of the lives of women and girls, families and communities. Our work is bolstered by the perspectives and insights of Wellesley College undergraduates who contribute to our research projects.

Our Team

linda-charmaraman-ph-d

Director/Principal Investigator, Senior Research Scientist

Linda Charmaraman, PhD, is a senior research scientist at Wellesley Centers for Women and founder and director of the Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab. Her research focuses on risky and resilient digital media behaviors within vulnerable peer and family contexts. Recent research interests include digital citizenship and how to engage youth in (re)defining and monitoring healthy digital media use.

alyssa-manning-gramajo

Alyssa Gramajo is a Research Associate at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. At WCW, Gramajo supports the work of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab as the project coordinator for data collection. In this capacity, Gramajo is a liaison to schools overseeing recruitment and scheduling, data management, dissemination projects, and manuscript editing. She also works closely with the lab’s Wellesley College student research assistants and interns.

diane-gruber-m-a

Diane Gruber, MA, is a Research Associate specializing in Child and Youth development at the National Institute of Out-of-School Time (NIOST). She brings her expertise as a licensed mental health counselor for children and adolescence to roles in the lab as an experienced field data collector and interviewer.

amanda-richer-m-a

Research Associate (assistant methodologist)

At WCW, she supports research scientists by managing datasets and performing statistical analyses for research projects, publications, and proposals. Her research areas include adolescent sexual health, emerging adult sexual health, media technology use, and the role of parenting and extended family. She has a special interest in understanding the role fathers play in supporting their teens and young adults.

sue-sours

Besides supervising the lab website design and maintenance team, Sue provides technological guidance and infrastructure when developing innovative methodologies. 

 

WCW UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS AND INTERNS

 

MORE INTERNS AND VOLUNTEERS 

 

These students are alumni of the Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab, having served as research interns, data collectors, or human-computer interaction interns.

Youth Advisory Board

The Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) informs the development of our STEM & Digital Wellbeing Workshops.

Our Partners

Funders

This work is made possible by the support of major federal and foundation grants and gift-funded awards. Funding has come from the National Institutes of Health; Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media & Child Development; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections program; I Am Strong Foundation; Morningstar Family Foundation: Wellesley Centers for Women’s 35th Anniversary Fund; Susan McGee Bailey Women’s Perspective Fund; Harold Benenson Memorial Grant; Nan May Holstein New Directions Award; Wellesley Centers for Women Class of ‘67 Internship Programs; Wellesley College Social Science Summer Research and Early Sophomore Research Internship Programs; Technology and Adolescent Mental Wellness Youth Advisory Board Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

 

Research Partners and Visiting Scholars

anna-m-adachi-mejia-ph-d

Executive Director of Veterans Education & Research Association 

elana-pearl-ben-joseph-m-d

Medical Editor, KidsHealth, Nemours Center for Children's Health Media

david-bickham-ph-d

Boston Children’s Hospital, Digital Wellness Lab 

stephen-chen-ph-d

Wellesley College Department of Psychology

catherine-delcourt-ph-d

Wellesley College Department of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Lab and Media Arts and Sciences (MAS) program

Catherine co-leads the Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab activities pertaining to summer STEM workshops and developing apps for healthy social media use in middle school. Her research interests focus on how people relate to each other through social technologies and the social implications of our increasing dependence on the internet.

lisette-m-desouza-ph-d

Lisette M. DeSouza, Ph.D., is a WCW Associate Research Scientist working with scholars at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST). Her roles in the lab include methodological consultation and examining how social technology use intersects with youth development activities.

kamilah-drummond-forrester-m-a

Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, an expert in social and emotional learning,  is collaborating with Linda Charmaraman to co-develop a middle school digital wellbeing curriculum. Kamilah brings expertise in racial equity, inclusion, and professional development support. Her approach puts students’ wellbeing at the center while meeting the needs of educators and families. Kamilah is also the former director of Open Circle, a social and emotional learning program of the Wellesley Centers for Women.

jennifer-m-grossman-ph-d

Jennifer M. Grossman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) specializing in adolescent development and family communication about sex and relationships. Her roles include recruitment, implementation, and dissemination of lab research activities involving parents of middle school students and how they monitor and communicate to their adolescents about social technology use. 

michael-jeffries-ph-d

Wellesley College Department of American Studies

elizabeth-b-klerman-m-d-ph-d

Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician in the Departments of Medicine and Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

cindy-h-liu-ph-d

Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and PI of the Developmental Risk and Resilience Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital 

alicia-doyle-lynch

Alicia Doyle Lynch, PhD, Founder of Lynch Research Associates, is a Developmental Psychologist specializing in statistical and methodological approaches for studying child and adolescent development. She leads our methodology team to provide guidance in conceptualization, design, data management, analysis, and interpretation of cross-sectional and longitudinal data.

megan-moreno-m-d-msed-mph

Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin Madison and PI of the Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team (SMAHRT)

megan-mueller-ph-d

Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction, Tufts University

 

Contact

Youth, Media, & Wellbeing Research Lab

Wellesley Centers for Women

Wellesley College – CHE
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481-8203

youthmediawellbeing@wcwonline[dot]org
781 283 2486





WCW logo W

Wellesley Centers for Women
Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481-8203 USA


781.283.2486
youthmediawellbeing@wcwonline.org

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