Dr. Peggy S. Meszaros is the William E. Lavery Professor of Human Development and Director of the Center for Information Technology Impacts on Children, Youth and Families. She is the former Senior Vice President and Provost at Virginia Tech, leading the university in establishing a new technology Master's degree in Northern Virginia, new technology infrastructure to support faculty development of on-line courses, a new university technology award, and now a new university technology center which she directs, the Center for Information Technology Impacts on Children, Youth and Families. This center, established in 2000 by Meszaros, has become a locus for innovative research including the following studies: Ethics and Privacy Issues Related to the Use of Technology in Qualitative and Ethnographic Research, Development of a Longitudinal Data Base Approach to Technology Impact Research in Human Development, Indicators of Self-Authorship in Highly Successful Women in Technology and Science Careers, and Parent Education Website Development: A Community Collaborative Research Project This body of work combines primary research with practical applications that affect students, academics, and community members. Her research interests have focused on positive youth development, human ecological, family, and gender issues. She has directed the production of a computer program for career exploration and a video on girl’s career choices. She has extensive teaching, research, and administrative experience having served as a faculty member for 26 years at private and public institutions as a tenured professor and as a department chair, associate dean, director of academic affairs, dean at two institutions, and provost at Virginia Tech.
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Dr. Fred Piercy is professor and department head, Department of Human Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , Blacksburg , VA. Dr. Piercy’s professional interests include family therapy education, family therapy for drug and alcohol abuse, qualitative research, and social science HIV/AIDS prevention research and intervention. Dr. Piercy has written over 100 published articles, five books, and 25 funded grants. He is the co-author of Family Therapy Sourcebook (with Douglas Sprenkle, Joseph Wetchler, and associates; Guilford Press, 1986, 1996) and Stop Marital Fights Before they Start (with Norman Lobsenz, Berkley Press, 1994). Dr. Piercy has won both national and university teaching awards. He has collaborated extensively with colleagues from the University of Indonesia and Atma Jaya University (in Jakarta , Indonesia ) and was the principle investigator of a World AIDS Foundation funded project in Indonesia . Dr. Piercy has also consulted widely in the USA , and in Nepal , the Philippines , and India .
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Dr. Huebner is currently an Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist in the Department of Human Development at Virginia Tech, housed at the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, VA. She is a community-based action researcher and her work focuses on helping communities to understand and assess the risk and protective factors found in their locals and in designing programs to meet specific identified needs for adolescents. Dr. Angela Huebner completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Family Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
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Jennifer L. Matheson, M.A., M.S., is a third year doctoral candidate in Marriage and Family Therapy in the Department of Human Development. She has been the graduate assistant on this project from 2002 to 2004. Her research interests are in women and substance abuse and is doing a dissertation on the experiences of power and powerlessness of women who are using 12-step to recover from drug abuse. She is a family therapist with experience treating adolescents, adults, and families with substance abuse issues.
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Sean D. Davis, M.S., is a doctoral candidate in the Marriage and Family
Therapy
program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He
was one of
the lead investigators of a Delphi study designed to assess
expert opinions
of differences between smoking prevention programs for males
and females. In
addition to substance abuse research, he is interested in
common factors in
marriage and family therapy and research on the process of
change in therapy.
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Ms. Lauren Shettler is currently a second-year student in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Virginia Tech, located at the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, VA. Her research interests include adolescent risk and protective factors. Recent work has focused on tobacco use among adolescent females. Her scholarly work has appeared in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Use and Addictive Behaviors. Ms. Shettler completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA.