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Newsletter
- Fall 2005
Student Accomplishments
LAURA FERRER-WREDER, PHD
I participated in Barry University 's MARC program from 1991 to 1993. As with many MARC, MIRT, and MBRS students, my MARC experience afforded me many wonderful new experiences and represented a key turning point. During my time in Barry's MARC program, I received a thorough and unique interdisciplinary grounding in the behavioral and natural sciences (graduating in 1993 with a B.S. in psychology and minor in biology). I had the opportunity to participate in several summer research experiences and grant writing activities. While at Barry, I worked with several of the psychology faculty including Drs. Stephen Koncsol and Lenore Szuchman, ultimately completing a research project on psychological adjustment in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. My research activities at Barry also took me on my first travels outside of Florida to Washington DC , Puerto Rico, and Princeton , New Jersey .
My time in Barry's MARC program gave me an early and accurate insight into the scientific enterprise. It also made me become excited about a career path and lifestyle that I would have never considered had it not been for this experience (there's the life transition). As part of Barry's MARC program, I also gained the initial confidence and experience that later helped me to write grants to support my future studies and research as a doctoral student in Life Span Developmental Psychology at Florida International University (from 1993-1998) and then later as a National Science Foundation International Research Fellow at Örebro University in Sweden (from 1999-2001).
After my doctoral studies and post-doctoral training experiences, I served as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Penn State Capital College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (from 2001- June 2005). After several productive and good years in Pennsylvania , I was once again offered a unique opportunity, this time the chance to serve as an Associate Professor of Psychology at Barry University . Needless to say, I took the opportunity to return to the university that had given me so much and started me along my present path.
I am very excited about returning to Barry University (this fall 2005) and am looking forward to working with my new colleagues as well as getting to know the current generation of Barry students (including MARC, MIRT, and MBRS students) through classes, research and service projects. The programmatic themes in my research agenda, which I hope to explore at Barry, include a better understanding of the processes that contribute to positive youth development, as well as the investigation of those conditions that accelerate youth problem behaviors (through epidemiological/longitudinal studies of risk-protective factors and resilience and via intervention trials). Other research themes that I am working on include the cultural adaptation of interventions and the development of interventions that seek to ameliorate multiple problems (e.g., HIV/substance abuse).
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