CYFAR Conference 2007
Chicago, IL

Keynote and Research Sessions


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Investing in Children, Youth, and Families: Why Community Matters


Cynthia “Mil” Duncan
Professor of Sociology
Director, The Carsey Institute
University of New Hampshire

Cynthia “Mil” Duncan gave the opening keynote address at CYFAR 2007. The Second Annual 4-H Family Strengthening Distinguished Lecture is funded by the Annie E . Casey Foundation. The purpose of the 4-H Family Strengthening Distinguished Lecture is to share research from the land grant university system that supports the role of families in positive youth development. Dr. Duncan’s address focused on issues surrounding the concerns of disadvantaged families.

Scholars have learned a good deal about how communities plagued by chronic, concentrated poverty diminish children’s and youth’s opportunities and perpetuate disadvantage across generations. Exploring the implications of living in poor communities for young people’s “cultural tool kit,” Duncan reviewed the lessons from research on poverty and community and discussed what we know about how communities’ civic culture and core institutions can provide opportunities for upward mobility for children at risk.

Cynthia Mildred Duncan is founding director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The institute supports interdisciplinary policy research in the social and health sciences; analyzes issues affecting children, youth, and families in small cities and rural communities in the United States; examines the potential to integrate environmental stewardship and community economic development in rural America; and provides analysis on low- and moderate-income families in northern New England. From 2000 to 2004 Duncan served as the Ford Foundation’s director of community and resource development, a global program that supports sustainable development focused on racial justice, social equity, and inclusive civic engagement. From 1989 to 2000, she was a professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, where she taught classes on poverty and inequality, political sociology, social change, and qualitative and applied methodology. Duncan is the author of Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America (Yale University Press 1999), which won the American Sociological Association’s Robert E. Park Award; Rural Poverty in America, an edited collection on rural poverty; and numerous articles on poverty and development. Duncan received her B.A. in English from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. She serves on several regional and national policy and development-related boards.

Don’t Bother Me, Mom—I’m Learning


Marc Prensky
Writer, Consultant, and Futurist

Based on his recent book, Marc Prensky’s keynote talk presents the case—profoundly counter-cultural but true nevertheless—that video and computer game playing, within limits, is actually very beneficial to today’s “Digital Native” kids, who are using the games to prepare themselves for life in the 21st century. According to Prensky, today’s youth are attracted to these games because they are learning important “future” things, from collaboration, to prudent risk taking, to strategy formulation and execution, to complex moral and ethical decisions. Prensky’s arguments are backed up by university Ph.D.s studying not just game violence but games in their totality, as well as by gamers who have become successful corporate workers, entrepreneurs, leaders, doctors, lawyers, and scientists.

Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, educator, consultant, and game designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001) and Don’t Bother Me, Mom—I’m Learning (Paragon House, 2006). Prensky is the founder and CEO of Games2train, whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Pfizer, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the LA and Florida Virtual Schools. He has spoken to teachers, administrators, school boards, and departments and ministries of education throughout the United States and around the world. Prensky holds a master’s degree in teaching from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard University, has taught at all levels, and has created over 50 software games for learning. Prensky has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Economist. He also appeared on CNN , MSNBC, PBS, and the BBC. He was named as one of training’s top 10 “visionaries” by Training magazine and cited as a “guiding star of the new parenting movement” by Parental Intelligence Newsletter. His latest projects are games for learning financial literacy, chemistry, physics and algebra. For Prensky’s writings, see www.marcprensky.com/writing. For Prensky’s games, see www.games2train.com.

Stories of Hope


Lateefah Simon
Director, Re-Entry Programs
San Francisco District Attorney’s Office

Lateefah Simon’s keynote address draws on her transformative work with high risk young people in high need communities. Simon will illustrate some of the strategies she has found to be effective in promoting healthier communities and healthier lives for low income youth.

Lateefah Simon serves as the director of Reentry Services for San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris. She is responsible for the development and implementation of programs and services in the DA’s office that aim to provide young adult reentering offenders with opportunities to gain skills, become employable, and exit the criminal justice system. Before joining the District Attorney’s Office, Simon served as the executive director for nine years of the San Francisco–based Center for Young Women’s Development, a nonprofit holistic reentry organization run for and by low-income young women. Simon’s innovative and successful approach to working with young adults in the criminal justice system has received national awards and recognition. In 2003, she received the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship; and in 2005 she was honored by the state of California as “Woman of the Year.”

Dilemmas of Youth Work


Reed Larson
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research in education, health, and other professions suggests that the expertise of practitioners resides in their abilities to understand and respond to the challenges, problems, and dilemmas of daily practice. Our research has examined the dilemma situations experienced by the adult leaders of youth programs, including programs in poor urban neighborhoods. The results indicate the diversity and complexity of situations these leaders encounter. This talk will also discuss how experienced program leaders are skilled in responding to these challenging situations in ways that balance multiple considerations and often transform a dilemma into an opportunity for youth’s development.

Reed W. Larson is the Pampered Chef Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency and is a professor in the Departments of Human and Community Development, Psychology, and Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the daily developmental experience of adolescents, particularly in the context of youth development programs and families. He is author of Divergent Realities: The Emotional Lives of Mothers, Fathers, and Adolescents (with Maryse Richards) and Being Adolescent: Conflict and Growth in the Teenage Years (with Mihály Csíkszentmihályi). He was recently the chair of the Study Group on Adolescence in the 21st Century, is editor-in-chief of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (with Lene Jensen), and is president-elect of the Society for Research on Adolescence.

Thinking Like a Scientist: Turning High-Risk Kids on to Science


Wendy Williams
Professor, Department of Human Development
Cornell University

High-risk youth tend not to pursue science education and careers. One reason is the way science is traditionally taught. “Thinking Like a Scientist” (TLAS) uses everyday examples—such as the effects of violent video games, and treatments for adolescent depression—to interest, energize, and involve low-income youth, youth of color, and girls, who often turn off to traditional science instruction. TLAS shows students that scientific thinking is a practical skill they can use to solve problems in their daily lives. It has been used successfully with African American, Latino, Native American, and disadvantaged White youth across the United States.

Wendy M. Williams is a professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell, where she studies the development, assessment, training, and societal implications of intelligence and related abilities. She holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in psychology from Yale University; a master’s degree in physical anthropology from Yale; and a bachelor’s degree in English and biology from Columbia University. Williams co-founded and co-directs the Cornell Institute for Research on Children, a National Science Foundation–funded research and outreach-based center. She heads Thinking Like A Scientist, a national education outreach program designed to encourage traditionally underrepresented groups to pursue science education and careers. Her publications include seven authored books, five edited volumes, and 70 articles, chapters, and reviews. She received the Early Career Contribution Award from APA Division 15 (Educational Psychology); the 1997, 1999, and 2002 Mensa Awards for Excellence in Research to a Senior Investigator; and the 2001 APA Robert L. Fantz Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology in recognition of her contributions to research in the decade following receipt of her Ph.D.