The HDFS Catalyst    September 2017

Dear HDFS community, Welcome back to the fall semester! For our inaugural 2017 – 2018 newsletter we are highlighting the many recent scholarly achievements of our faculty and students. Just in the last three summer months, our faculty and students have been involved with significant new ventures, as you can see described below.The scholastic accomplishments of our unit speak to the energy and excitement that people feel for the work that they do. Best wishes for continued success to our whole HDFS group! Sincerely, Dr. Bahira Sherif Trask HDFS Department Chair

Faculty Spotlights

Dr. Jennifer Carrano was recently featured in the Huffington Post in an article about effective parent and child communication strategies to prevent adolescent substance abuse. Excerpt from article," It's natural to want to shield your child from dangers like drugs, at least for as long as you can. In fact, you should start in the preschool years," says Jennifer Carrano , an assistant professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Delaware. Read full article. Dr. Valerie Earnshaw has received a four-year early career award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. As part of the award, she will pursue training in substance use disorders, social network analysis, and intervention science. She will receive mentorship at UD from Jean-Philippe Laurenceau (pictured above with Dr. Earnshaw) , the Unidel A. Gilchrist Sparks III Chair and Professor of Psychology & Brain Sciences. Read more.

In July, Dr. Jason Hustedt presented a webinar, What to expect when implementing parenting enhancements , in conjunction with the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement at Boston Children's Hospital's Brazelton Touchpoints Center . This webinar was part of a series of webinars sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, which funds a consortium of researchers at universities across the U.S. who are studying evidence-based parenting interventions. The Starting at Home project being conducted by HDFS faculty is one of six projects nationwide that are part of the consortium, which also includes the University of Maryland, New York University, Washington University, the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Denver.

Student Engagement

Nadisha Downs pictured in Durban, South Africa

'18 HS Nadisha Down's, paper on "Father Involvement of Young African American Men ages 18-25, in an Urban Context" was accepted by the National Association of African American Studies & Affiliates.This awarded her the opportunity to present her paper in Durban, South Africa. This research paper will be published through the National Association of African American Studies & Affiliates monograph as well as filed with the Library of Congress, EBSCO and ProQuest. "This research work gave me a deeper appreciation for the complexity of the decisions I’ve made in my life. When people want to give back, they usually start with their home and their communities.This showed me how I can be an asset to other communities and how I can help others with their research," says Nadisha.

ECE student teaching experience at the American Community School in Greece.

Alumni Making a Difference

Alison Hooper '13MS '17PhD, has begun her first semester as an Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education, in the School of Education at the University of Alabama. During her time in the HDFS master’s and Ph.D. programs, she had the opportunity to be involved with a number of projects within the Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood. These experiences helped to shape her research interests and specifically led her to focus on studying home-based child care providers for her dissertation.

 Upcoming Dates

Sept 15 Kaffee und Kuchen,11:00-1:00,111 ALW Sept 23 Blue and Golden Saturday Sept 29 HDFS Faculty & Staff Diversity Workshop

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