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More than 300 faculty members across the university— in the social sciences, the humanities, medicine, dentistry, management, public health, nursing, and law— are engaged in child-related research and teaching. Now, in its latest initiative, the College's Schubert Center for Child Development is seeking to link research, education, and policy in this vital area.
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| Cheryl Lynne Morrow-White M.D. (FAAP) |
Cheryl Lynne Morrow-White, M.D. (FAAP), has been named director of the Child Policy Initiative. A board-certified pediatrician who earned her B.A. at Harvard and her medical degree at the Case School of Medicine, Dr. Morrow-White has assumed major clinical and administrative roles with the Cleveland Clinic, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, and MetroHealth Medical Center. She has also been actively involved in advocacy as a national director of the American Heart Association.
"I anticipate interactions at all levels of the university as I address and champion the development of a robust child policy program at the Schubert Center for Child Development," said Dr. Morrow-White. "I have always found the Case environment intellectually stimulating and supportive. It is with great expectations that I return to serve the university and the needs of children."
The CPI has three objectives, according to Jill Korbin, professor of anthropology and associate dean in the College, and Rick Settersten, professor and chair of sociology, who co-direct the Schubert Center.
The first is education. "Drawing on the expertise of local child advocates and policymakers, we will begin to develop policy modules that can be incorporated across the undergraduate curriculum," said Korbin. "We are aiming to create a more child policy-focused curriculum at Case, employing three strategies: curricular infusion, curricular expansion, and experiential learning." As part of the curricular expansion, a new course on child policy will be offered for the first time in Fall 2005.
On the experiential learning side, the CPI has received support from the Mann Endowment Fund to arrange student "externships" at local community agencies. Two Arts and Sciences undergraduates were recently named Mann Fellows and are completing service projects this spring. Rebecca Cohen, a senior majoring in sociology and minoring in psychology and anthropology, is currently working at the Center for Community Solutions on an early childcare and education campaign. Elizabeth Kiracofe, a junior majoring in psychology and minoring in early childhood studies, chemistry, and biology, is working for Voices for Children of Greater Cleveland on a project to assess and foster health care professionals' interest in child advocacy.
The initiative's second objective, Settersten noted, is research. "We plan to initiate a new series of publications to translate university-based child-relevant research for the use of policy and practice audiences," he said. These "Research and Policy Briefs" will summarize new and ongoing child-related research at Case and highlight implications for policy and practice in the field.
Communication is the CPI's third objective. "We want to foster ongoing exchanges between academics and policymakers on child-related matters through symposia, policy-relevant faculty talks, and other communications vehicles," Korbin said. For example, the Schubert Center has organized a CPI colloquia series called "Case Conversations on Children in Research and Policy." It has also partnered with the Case Center for Women and the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities for a special series of lectures on "Girls and Girlhood."
Currently, the CPI is conducting a campus-wide survey of Case faculty and will produce an inventory of their research on children and childhood. This inventory will be posted on the Schubert Center's website later this spring.
The CPI is supported by a two-year start-up grant from The George Gund Foundation and The Cleveland Foundation.
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