A Year in Review 2021-2022
The Schubert Center navigated the landscape of the ongoing pandemic during the 2021/22 academic year under the leadership of Anastasia Dimitropoulos, Associate Professor of Psychology. With a mix of remote, hybrid, and in-person programming, she oversaw the center's efforts to advance the mission to bridge policy, research, practice, and education for the wellbeing of children. In addition, our Research Director, Dr. Sonia Minnes, led our center's research efforts, working with the community and on-campus partners. Her work included overseeing our program evaluation collaborative project with and further refining our newly developed Schubert Research Fellows program. Dr. Minnes also had the opportunity to give written expert testimony to the Ohio General Assembly on the importance of providing quality childcare for all across the state.
Policy Director Gabriella Celeste continued her state and local policy efforts this year with a particular focus on youth and police interactions, child lead poisoning, improving child protection supports, addressing the needs of children and youth in crisis, and juvenile justice reform. With support from The George Gund Foundation, the center worked with local community partners and youth, including the Boys & Girls Club of North East Ohio, to create a 5-minute video and toolkit designed to spark dialogue, understanding, and action among adults working with children. Efforts to keep children safe from lead continued locally and at the Statehouse with an Advocacy Day led by the Ohio Lead-Free Kids Coalition (OLFKC) to increase investments in lead poisoning prevention. As a founding member of the Cleveland Children's Coalition, our center worked to support Cleveland's newly elected Mayor Bibb through the transition to elevate the importance of adopting a whole-child approach across his Cabinet.
We held our fifth annual Kessler-Freedheim lecture in the fall featuring Dr. Arielle Sheftall, Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator at the Suicide Prevention and Research Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Her lecture, "The changing landscape of youth suicide and suicidal behavior: An examination of racial differences and risk factors," looked at the increase in suicides and the lack of research focused on minoritized youth and the potential avenues for intervention.
Students at ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ continue to grow as leaders in child research and policy fields. Mann externs had placements at the Juvenile Justice Center and YWCA - A Place 4 Me. It was also our second year for the Schubert Research Fellows. The program launched in 2021 as a collaboration between the Schubert Center and the Emerging Scholars Program (ESP). This collaboration provides academic support, intensive advising, professional development, and a strong peer network for underrepresented ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ students from the Cleveland area. We had two Welter-Muzic grant recipients this year, Marie Kallay and Madison Miles. In addition, Ellen Doernberg, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, was selected as the 2021-2022 Freedheim Award Fellowship recipient for her promising dissertation research on developing play interventions for children with autism.
As the 2021-2022 year closes, the Schubert Center looks forward to implementing the final year of the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan.