2007 Fall Alumni Symposium

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Symposium Home |  Committee Members |  Presentation Descriptions |  Presenter Bios

Symposium Presenters and Panelists

Graduate Faculty Presenters

Diane Levin, Professor of Education
Ph.D., Tufts University, 1978; M.S.Ed., Wheelock College, 1969; BS, Cornell University, 1968.

Diane Levin is a professor of education. She has taught courses on play, media literacy, and violence prevention for over 25 years. An internationally recognized expert, she helps professionals and parents to understand and deal with the effects of violence, media, and commercial culture on children. She is the author of six books, including: The War Play Dilemma: What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know; Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom; and, Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture. She has consulted for the American Psychological Association’s ACT against Violence Program and Consumers Reports’ annual toy review article. She has developed violence prevention training for childcare providers in the state of Maine and has been a Senior Adviser for three PBS Parents’ websites, “Talking To Kids about War and Violence,” “The New Heroes: How To Raise a Kid Who Cares,” and “The PBS Parents Guide to School.” She is a founder of Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment, which helps parents deal with the impact of media and commercial culture on their children, and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which works for an end to the commercial exploitation of children.

Shirley Malone-Fenner, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor
Ed.D. (1993), Vanderbilt University; B.S. (1976) and M.P.S. (1980), Western Kentucky University.

Shirley Malone-Fenner was appointed professor of Human Development/Psychology in 2002 and Dean of Arts and Sciences July 1, 2004, after having served as director of the Urban Teacher Program since 1990. Before joining Wheelock in 1987, Dean Malone-Fenner held several positions at Western Kentucky University, including psychology instructor, director of Scholastic Activities, and counselor learning specialist. Prior to her appointment at Western, she served as a senior mental health specialist with the Barren River Mental Health Center. Dean Malone-Fenner, as a developmentalist and clinical psychologist, consults teachers and families on post traumatic stress syndrome and the clinical effect on children. Her research and publications focus on urban education, racial and cultural diversity, and post traumatic stress syndrome. Dean Malone-Fenner's publications include Eenie, Meenie, Mynie, Mo: The Persistence of Racial Definitions in Play, published in Case Book on Play, Teaching Conceptual Learning Using Interactive Teaching Methods, Preparing Teachers for Urban Setting: An Interactive Approach to Evaluation, Meeting the Challenge of Cultural Diversity in the Classroom: Case Study Approach, published in World Association for Case Method Research and Application, Building Mental Health Services for Troubled and Troubling Children, published in the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Problems. Video publications include Clinical Effects of Violence and Putting it All Together: Violence in Our Schools.

Petra Hesse, Associate Professor of Human Development
Vordiplom, Universität Hamburg, 1977; M.A.L.D., Tufts University, 1985; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1985; licensed as a psychologist, 1989.

Petra Hesse is an associate professor of human development. Trained in developmental and clinical psychology and international relations, she has been teaching courses on the human life cycle, emotional development, abnormal and counseling psychology, children and the media, and children's political socialization. Her research interests are children's emotional development and emotional education, children's political socialization and political education, and children's media and media literacy education. She has written for a variety of European and American publications: Psychosozial, Telemedium, International Journal of Mental Health, Young Children, and Contemporary Psychological Review. In graduate school, she co-edited a monograph on emotional development and co-wrote several book chapters on emotional development. As a post-doctoral fellow, she wrote about children's fears of nuclear war. Since her arrival at Wheelock, she has written about children's enemy images in different cultures, about German adolescents before and after reunification, and about children's reactions to 9/11. She produced a videotape and wrote several articles and book chapters about political messages on children's television. Petra's most recent publications are about media literacy education. She is currently working on several projects about teacher training in media literacy and in emotional and political education.

Hope Haslam Straughan, Assistant Professor of Social Work
Ph.D. in Social Work - Barry University, 2000; MSW - The Carver School of Church Social Work, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1993; BA - Samford University, 1989.

Hope's research and scholarship interests include spirituality within social work assessment and intervention, justice-based social work, social work with people with HIV and AIDS, and foster care and adoption. She teaches a variety of courses, including First Year Seminar, Social Work Practicum Seminar for B.S.W. seniors, and Human Behavior & the Social Environment: Advanced Applications for second year M.S.W. students, and strives to set up a classroom environment which allows for a learning community to evolve. Hope also serves as a field liaison for the B.S.W. seniors, supporting the student and Field Instructor in the learning and growth process. She views the learning process as a journey, partnered between the faculty and students, paralleling the worker and client partnership, requiring creativity, responsiveness, and knowledge/skill/value expertise. She serves as a volunteer foster care case reviewer for the Department of Social Services, is on the Massachusetts board of the Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups (AASWG), and is a member of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work (NACSW).

Graduate Alumni Presenters

Jacqueline (Jackie) Mast ’78MS

Jacqueline Mast earned her Master’s Degree in Infant and Toddler Behavior and Development. She is owner of Mast Clinic, Inc. in Westbrook, Maine, and is a pediatric physical therapist, medical intuitive and kid whisperer. Her work with infants and young children embodies two philosophies once thought incompatible: traditional and intuitive. As a Fellow of the American Academy for Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, past VP, Section on Pediatrics, American Physical Therapy Association, long-time member of International Society on Infant Studies, and Professional Member of The Monroe Institute, she incorporates evidence-based practice with her gift of insight/second sight. She also believes that we must share our knowledge across disciplines in order to evolve our approaches to care of children. Influences on her work come from other disciplines, including neurobiology, osteopathy, developmental biopsychiatry, and from other cultures, including Navaho, Passamaquoddy, Chinese, Nordic, British, and West African. Since 1999, she has chaired annual multidisciplinary, multicultural international conferences in Maine, Puerto Rico, and Iceland.

Craig Simpson ’89MS

Craig Simpson is the Infant/Toddler Team Leader at the Yawkey Center for Early Education and Care in Dorchester, MA. He is the Past President of the Boston Association for the Education of Young Children (BAEYC). Craig is active in Concerned Educators Allied for a Safe Environment (CEASE). Craig graduated with a Master of Science - Early Childhood Teaching in 1989 from Wheelock College and was strongly influenced by Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Diane Levin, and Petra Hesse.

Karen Swartz '97BS/'98MS

Karen Swartz earned both her Bachelor's Degree in Human Development with a concentration in Child Life and Master's Degree in Child Life and Family Centered Care from Wheelock. In addition to the many field experiences while at Wheelock, Karen also participated in the Hospitalized Child in London Program where she completed an internship at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She is currently a Certified Child Life Specialist at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island where she works in the Pediatric Heart Center and the Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition Clinic. She co-leads a patient support group for children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis). She is undergoing training to become a Certified Educator in Infant Massage, which she intends to offer to the patients in the clinics in which she works as well as offering free Infant Massage classes (with a co-child life specialist) to families at the hospital. Karen is also a founding member of the New England Child Life Professionals, an educational and networking group for area Child Life Specialists.