Jane Powers |
| Senior Research Associate, ACT for Youth Project |
| 1st fl. Beebe Hall |
| FLDC |
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| Phone: 607-255-3993 |
| Fax: 607-255-8562 |
| Email: jlp5@cornell.edu |
| View Cornell Contact Info |
Biographical Statement:
I have been a Senior Research Associate at Cornell University's Family Life Development Center since 1985 where I have worked on a variety of research projects which have examined the impact of violence on the lives of children, youth and families. Since 2000, I have been involved in the application of research and knowledge specifically around promoting the health and well being of adolescents and preventing risk behaviors, including violence, sexually risky behavior, and abuse. I currently am co-PI and Project Director for the Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Center of Excellence, which is a collaboration of Cornell, the University of Rochester Division of Adolescent Medicine the New York State Center for School Safet, and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC. We work with communities and youth serving organizations across New York State helping them implement positive youth development strategies. My research interests include positive youth development, evaluation of community based programs, adolescent sexual health, child abuse and neglect, and violence prevention strategies. I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University in 1985. |
Current Professional Activities:
I have been a Senior Research Associate at the FLDC since 1985. Currently, I serve as the Project Director and Co-PI of the Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Center of Excellence which supports the implementation of positive youth development strategies throughout communities in New York State and youth serving programs funded by the New York State Department of Health that promote adolescent health and well being. I also provide training and evaluation support for programs that promote adolescent sexual health. My research interests include positive youth development, prevention of at risk behaviors, child abuse and neglect, violence prevention, and youth homelessness. |
Current Research Activities:
1) Evaluating the implementation and impact of the ACT for Youth initiative which includes studying the formation of community partnerships, community mobilization strategies that promote youth development, and the extent to which communities implement organizational and community policy changes that reflect youth develoment principles and practices.
2) Developing of tools and processes for programs to use to assess the extent to which they have implemented and integrated youth develoment principles and practices. Using self assessment data for organizational change and improvement.
3) Youth Views on Adolescent Sexual Health: Information, Access, services, and treatment
4) Homeless Youth Study: A participatory project that engages formerly homeless youth to study the scope and nature of youth homelessness in Tompkins County (a collaborative project with the Learning Web and Tompkins County Youth Services Department).
5) Inegrating youth-adult partnerships into organization and community decision making: What does it take? A collaborative project with University of Wisconsin to study how the innovative practice of youth voice (via youth/adult partnerships) is established within organizations and communities (using the ACT for Youth partnerships to examine this question). The next phase of the research involves integrating the NYS findings with national data on youth/adult partnerships.
6) Engaging Youth as Evaluation Partners: a collaborative project with the University of Wisconsin, Cooperative Extension, which involves developing a youth led evaluation approach for collecting and using data to bring about organizational change and improvement that strengthen youth development practices within programs.
7) Evaluating the impact of service-learning programs in school based and community settings.
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Administrative Responsibilities:
I currently direct the Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth Center of Excellence and oversee and manage several additional spin off research projects. I served as Acting Director of the Family Life Development Center from 1/1/08-6/30/08. |
Current Extension Activities:
Implementing and evaluating youth development strategies in community settings; Building capacity of practitioners for program evaluation; Facilitating program assessment and action planning through youth/adult partnerships; Disseminating youth development knowledge, best practice and resources to policy makers, educators, and service providers across NYS and nationally through training, workshops, conferences and the ACT for Youth website www.actforyouth.net. |
Selected Publications:
Whitlock, J., and Powers, J. (2008) Places to be and Belong: Youth Perceptions of Life in Community, The Prevention Researcher, 15 (2) : 12-15.
Whitlock, J., Powers, J., and Eckenrode, J (2006) The Virtual Cutting Edge: The Internet and Adolescent Self Injury. Developmental Psychology, 42(3):1-11.
Powers, J. and Tiffany, J. (2006) Engaging youth in participatory research and evaluation. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, November Supplement, p 68-76.
Eckenrode, J., Zielinski, D., Smith, El., Marcynszyn, L., Henderson, C., Kitzman, H., Cole, R., Powers, J., and Olds, D. "Child Maltreatment and the early onset of problem behaviors: Can a program of nurse home visitation break the link?" Development and Psychopathology, 13 (2001), 873-890.
Eckenrode, J., Ganzel, B., Henderson, C., Smith, E., Olds, D., Powers, J., Cole, R., Kitzman, H., and Sidora, K. Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect with a Program of Nurse Home Visitation: The Limiting Effects of Domestic Violence, , Journal of the American Medical Association, September 20, 2000, Vol 284, No. 11.
Garbarino, J., Eckenrode, J., and Powers, J. (1997) The maltreatment of youth. In J. Garbarino and J. Eckenrode (Eds.), Understanding Abusive Families. (2nd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Eckenrode, J., Powers, J., and Garbarino, J. (1997) Youth in trouble are youth who have been hurt. In J. Garbarino and J. Eckenrode (Eds.), Understanding Abusive Families. (2nd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Powers, J. and Jaklitsch, B. (1992)Adolescence and Homelessness: The Unique Challenge for Secondary Educators, in J. Stronge, Ed. Educating Homeless Children and Adolescents: Evaluating Policy and Practice . CA: Sage Publications.
Powers, J. and Jaklitsch, B. (1989) Understanding Survivors of Abuse: Stories of Homeless and Runaway Adolescents Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts.
Powers, J., Jaklitsch, B., and Eckenrode, J. (1989) Behavioral Indicators of Maltreatment Among Runaway and Homeless Youth. In J.T. Pardeck (ed.) Child Abuse and Neglect: Theory, Research, and Practice. London: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.
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The information on this bio page is taken from the CHE Annual Report. |
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