The College of Health and Human Development officially opens its newest research center with a Sept. 15 ceremony at University Park. Opening events for the Center for Human Development & Family Research in Diverse Contexts start at 4 p.m. in the Nittany Lion Inn's Assembly Room. President Graham B. Spanier will take part in the ceremony, which is open to the public.
The keynote speaker is William J. Wilson, the Malcolm Wiener professor of social policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is one of the nation's leading authorities on inner-city poverty and public policy, and is author of the forthcoming book The Bridge Over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality and Coalition Politics. He also authored the books The Truly Disadvantaged and When Work Disappears.
Wilson has been honored with numerous awards throughout his career. In 1998, he received the National Medal of Science, making him only the second social scientist to ever receive this award. In addition, he has received the Martin Luther King Jr. National Award, the American Sociological Association's Committee for the Public Understanding of Sociology Award and the Lester F. Ward Distinguished Contributions to Applied Sociology Award. He's a MacArthur Prize Fellow and former president of the American Sociological Association.
The Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts is under the direction of Linda Burton. The center trains scholars to look at what impacts families in the context of culture, race or socioeconomic status. It is a collaborative center bringing together researchers from many universities.
A reception is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in Ballrooms D and E in The Nittany Lion Inn immediately following the keynote address. For more information on the event, call the Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts at (814) 863-7108 or visit the Web at http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/centers/DIVCONT/divcontexts.htm.