PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
SEPTEMBER 11, 2025 VOL. 33 NO. 2
BC Researchers: Eldercare Benefit Shows Promise BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
An eldercare employee benefit that is the subject of a Boston College School of Social Work case study holds promise for the millions of working Americans who face the challenge of caring for aging family members and loved ones, according to the BCSSW researchers. Supported by a grant from AARP, Associate Professor Christina Matz—director of the Center on Aging & Work at BCSSW—and doctoral student Chin-Yi Su have authored an innovative-practice case study of the Concentric Caregiving Program, which provides flexible paid leave each year to employees at global digital agency Critical Mass, an employer partner in AARP’s Living, Learning & Earning Longer Collaborative. Through Concentric, Critical Mass employees receive up to 40 hours—the equiv-
Boston College held the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit on September 4—a centuries-old tradition in Jesuit education and one of the University community’s signal events. University President William P. Leahy, S.J., celebrated the Mass with homilist Fr. Tony Penna, special assistant to the Vice President for University Mission and Ministry.
Pair of BC Art Faculty Members Earn Prestigious Fellowships
INSIDE 2 Around Campus
Info on flu, COVID, RSV shots; BC makes LinkedIn list.
4 Molecular View
Chemistry researchers examine tRNAs and diseases.
8 MCAS Dean’s Colloquium
Panel on economic, foreign policy.
Continued on page 8
Flores Is New Cawthorne Chair in the Lynch School
photos by caitlin cunningham
Aurelia Campbell and Cathy Della Lucia, faculty members in the Boston College Art, Art History, and Film Department, have been awarded major fellowships—a national recognition of the artistic talent and scholarship within the department. Campbell, an associate professor of art history and the department chair, is a
alent of five standard workdays—annually for eldercare responsibilities, which can be used in full days or smaller increments. Employees submit a request through an online form, with minimal explanation required, and Concentric hours are recorded in the company’s time-tracking software, enabling Critical Mass to monitor usage patterns and better understand caregiving needs. Concentric—developed by David Greene, a user-experience director and caregiving advocate at Critical Mass—also includes educational seminars on caregiving-related topics. According to Matz and Su’s case study, approximately 10 percent of Critical Mass’s nearly 1,900 employees opted into the program when Concentric was introduced in 2023 (an update on current numbers has not yet been completed). In addition to flexibility and the ease of tracking it provides, Concentric has been praised
recipient of a 2025-2026 George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship; Della Lucia, an assistant professor of studio art, received a 2025 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, an independent agency administered at Brown University, grants annual unrestricted fellowships to assist in the intellectual and artistic growth of early mid-career individuals. Campbell was awarded a fellowship in the category of Art History, Architecture, and Visual Culture. Campbell specializes in the architecture and material culture from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties (1279-1911) in China. She is interested in issues concerning materials and technologies, sacred objects and spaces, and the relationship between the imperial court and outlying regions. During her fellowship, she will work on her forthcoming book, In Death as in Life: A Material History of Ming Dynasty Tombs.
Continued on page 3
BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER
Stella M. Flores, a national expert on the impact of federal, state, and institutional policy on the college access and success of low-income, underrepresented, and immigrant students across the K–20 pathway, has been named the John E. Cawthorne Millennium Chair Professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Previously a professor of higher education and public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held crossschool appointments in the departments of Education, Leadership and Policy, and Curriculum and Instruction, Flores also served as director of research and strategy at UT-Austin’s Education Research Center. Prior to UT-Austin, she was an associate professor of higher education at New York University and served as the associate dean at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture. As Cawthorne Professor, she will teach in the department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education, said Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School.
Stella M. Flores
“We are thrilled to have Stella Flores join us as a member of the Lynch School faculty,” said Wortham. “Her work on education policy has been recognized for years as particularly influential. She will collaborate with our other strong scholars of education policy to create a hub for groundbreaking, visible work that will
Continued on page 4