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newsletter
This Issue: UT IN NYC The UT in NYC Program brings our textiles and apparel students into the boardrooms and work spaces of the fashion industry’s elite.
PERPET U A L FOREIGNER S T EREOT YPE IN A DOLES CENT S Su Yeong Kim examines the impact language proficiency has on the mental health of adolescents.
S T R ES S : IT DO ES A M A R R IA G E G O O D Lisa Neff is discovering the positive side of stress spillover for newly married couples.
Q&A W IT H PEDIAT R IC G EN ET ICIS T Huiping Zhu is works to prevent birth defects. She is examining how maternal health in the prenatal period can impact children throughout their lives. A N D M O R E‌
We dedicate this newsletter to Amy McLaughlin whose greatest gift was her commitment to making the world a better place through education. Amy will continue to inspire and impact future generations of students. We are grateful for having known her.
human potential
Message from the Director
Dear Friends, human impact
It has been more than a year since we last sent you a newsletter. I write as the not-so-new director of the School of Human Ecology to let you know of a few developments and to thank you for your continuing support.
Human Development and Family Sciences, Nutritional Sciences, and Textiles and Apparel have
all seen a banner year. Aprile Benner, Karen Fingerman, Rick Finnell, and Michele Forman, all researchers at the top of their games, have joined our faculty. Aprile Benner’s work is drawn upon for national policies aimed at ensuring our children achieve their potential. Karen Fingerman brings her broad-based, widely heralded work on aging and how each generation in a family provides support for human scale
the next. Rick Finnell, a world-renown scholar, is working on, among other things, the correlates and causes of birth defects. Michele Forman, joining us from MD Anderson, brings a remarkable array of work on obesity, nutrition, and epidemiology.
Dr. Kay Jay and Dr. Bugao Xu are working with colleagues in Harry Ransom Center (HRC) and
the Department of Theater and Dance on the recently established Gone with the Wind project. This collaboration with the HRC on the preservation of film costumes from the Selznick collection has allowed our graduate and undergraduate students to gain valuable hands-on experience to document the condition of artifacts from the film. Nancy Prideaux, working with the iconic Iris Apfel, has launched what is now human affairs
known as the UT in NYC Program, expanding the remarkable opportunities students pursuing careers in retail and merchandising now have. Finally, as is now a tradition, Eve Nicols, Karen Bravo, and Ockhee Bego will direct another stunning fashion show highlighting our students’ astonishing creativity.
The School of Human Ecology is also reaching out in important ways to the community. The Lab
School will be launching the TLC Project to better support and train early childhood educators. Our Dietetics students have developed recipes to support the health of individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Marci Gleason and Tim Loving have helped launch scienceofrelationships.com the research-supported antidote to television ‘relationship experts.’ The Web site is growing in popularity at an astounding rate.
The School of Human Ecology, as we now routinely say, is science based and human focused. We
are proud of the work being done, and we thank you for your continuing support.
Kind regards,
Sheldon Ekland-Olson, Director, School of Human Ecology
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Science based. Human focused.
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human potential
Throw Open the Doors: UT in NYC Liz Timmins, a senior retail merchandising senior, and 13 fellow textiles and apparel students returned to Austin after spending a week in New York City where students met the most influential game-makers in apparel design, visual merchandising, fashion styling, textile conservation, and retail development. The trip was the first for the innovative UT in NYC program, textiles and apparel students were flown to New York City where they were treated to a whirlwind, behind-the-scenes tour of boardrooms, studios, and curatorial spaces. Timmins plans a career as a fashion forecaster (a person with the ‘eye’ who scours the streets, the dance clubs, and the runways for fashion’s next big hit). In the ultra-competitive fashion behemoth that is New York City, how does an Austin, Texas native with a newly minted degree get her foot in the door, much less the right door? The UT in NYC program is all about opening the right doors. Naturally, students were expected to have done their homework. It was understood that each student would thoroughly research each of the 20 businesses they were to visit. With prepared questions in hand, students were given two hours to learn all they could from industry experts. After each visit, students were asked to write down their immediate observations which became the basis for a longer written reflection on their experiences. This question/observation/ reflection work was designed to encourage students to seriously consider what they’ve learned and transform that information into plans and actions. It’s how students can learn which doors are the correct doors to open. Iris Apfel, style icon, unabashed mondaine, and visiting professor in the Division of Textiles and Apparel, was instrumental in opening her own personal set of doors for students. Ms. Apfel does not mince words. A career in the New York City apparel industry isn’t for the fainthearted. Ms. Apfel said, “You must have passion. Learn the industry. Learn your niche. There are no CEOs out of the gate. Your passion will allow you to work your way up from the bottom, and you’ll start at the bottom.” Students, under the careful guidance of Ms. Apfel, were invited into the boardrooms of MAC Cosmetics, Bergdorf Goodman, HSN, Inc., and W magazine. Ms. Apfel introduced students to a constellation of luminaries: Mindy Grossman, CEO of Home Shopping Network with its $3 billion retail portfolio; Leela Rose, fashion designer who is retailed in stores like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Saks 5th Avenue; Harold Koda, curator of The Metro-
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politan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute who, quite literally, wrote the book on Ms. Apfel; Naeem Khan, fashion designer whose gowns have been worn by First Lady Michelle Obama, Brooke Shields, and Queen Noor of Jordan; and Linda Fargo, senior vice president, women’s fashion office, and store presentation at Bergdorf Goodman. Students were also treated to a tour of Lori Goldstein’s studio conducted by Textiles and Apparel alumna, Laurel St. Romain. Having doors like these thrown open is invaluable to our students. Textiles and apparel alumna, Tricia Besing, and her husband Gil Besing of Dallas saw that the opportunities presented by the UT in NYC program could be truly life-changing; prior to her freshman year at the university, Tricia spent time in New York City learning the apparel industry’s ropes. The Besings generously underwrote a large portion of the trip so promising students weren’t hindered by the financial obligation. Of her experience in New York City, Timmins says, “It was amazing. These are legendary people. Everyone was so welcoming; they were so willing to answer our questions about every aspect of their industries.” You can read more about Iris Apfel in the June, 2011 edition of Architectural Digest (or you can find the entire article by visiting Architectural Digest at www.architecturaldigest. com/homes/homes/2011/06/iris_apfels_exuberant_apartment_ article#ixzz1Nxid7qA8 ) Documentary film maker John Wadsworth has filmed the students as they travelled throughout New York City. The complete film will be viewable at the School of Human Ecology’s new Web site. For more information about the documentary, please contact Lauren Alexander at 512-471-7282.
Top Left: Iris Apfel and UT in NYC students throw up those horns with designer Naeem Khan. Top Right: Students listen to a talk presented by Kenneth Wyse, president of licensing for Phillips-Van Heusen, whose portfolio of brands includes Izod, Calvin Klein, and Tommy Hilfiger. Bottom: Nancy Prideaux, director of UT in NYC, with alumna Laurel St. Romain and Ms. Apfel. Laurel works with stylist Lori Goldstein.
The Lab School’s TLC Project Takes Aim at Enrichment and Retention of Early Childhood Educators
P R O B L EM S M EET SOL UTI ONS Students in the practicum in community dietetics are always up for a challenge, and dietetics students took this challenge, inventing a set
The Priscilla Pond Flawn Child and Family Laboratory (PPFCFL) will launch the Teacher Learning Collaborative (TLC) Project in 2011. The initiative is made possible through a $50,000 grant from the Texas Methodist Foundation’s Gillum Fund established by Frances Creech and Isabelle Dubar. The TLC Project will improve the quality of childcare in Texas by giving much needed additional training, professional support, career development, and educational opportunity to early childhood caregivers working with vulnerable populations of young children. The TLC Project was developed to provide training for Texas early childhood caregivers in child growth and development, positive guidance and discipline, developmentally appropriate curriculum, and positive teacher-child interactions through on-site workshops, webinars, and training videos. Caregivers receive on-going program support through mentor matching. Rhonda Hauser, PPFCFL Director and director of the TLC Project, says, “We are grateful that the Texas Methodist Foundation has afforded us this exciting opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise with the broader community while extending the mission of the lab school.” Research shows that the quality of childcare across Texas remains poor. Poor quality child-
care is associated with less optimal child outcomes and future school readiness and success. Because the relationship between a caregiver and child is an important characteristic of high quality care, the level of education and training of child caregivers is a key factor in providing quality early learning experiences for young children and strongly correlates with how long a caregiver will remain in childcare employment. On the average the turnover rate among staff in childcare settings is more than one-third annually. This turnover rate jeopardizes the development of consistent teacher-child relationships and contributes to the poor quality of childcare in Texas. Additionally, Texas ranks as one of the lowest among the 50 states for childcare provider training requirements. “Through the TLC Project we will support undertrained teachers in the community, particularly those who serve children in more vulnerable childcare settings,” Hauser says. In the first four months of the project, Hauser will recruit Austin childcare centers to participate in the project. “There is strength in a whole center coming together for training. Supported by one another, groups of teachers are more likely to take what they learn back to their centers and experiment with what works best.” Of the centers invited to participate in the pilot, 80% will be those serving vulnerable children and families, and 20% will come from licensed but unaccredited centers. “The Lab School receives such strong support from the university and from our families,” says Hauser. “We owe it to our community to broaden our outreach in an effort to give back.”
of recipes to support individuals living with HIV/AIDS, in stride. “We invented two savory recipes, a bean salad and a lower sodium chili as well as sweet dishes like no-bake peanut butter cookies,” said dietetics student Amanda Longoria. The recipes are ethnically sensitive and include additional protein and unsaturated fats to better support the compromised immune systems of clients. “We focused on easy-toprepare recipes comprised entirely of ingredients found regularly at community food banks,” said Longoria. The recipes were distributed to clients of AIDS Services of Austin’s food and nutrition services.
IN TE R N AT IO N A L NUTR I TI ON Nutritional sciences students will learn about nutrition, food, health, and culture in one of the world’s most stunning locations, Cape Town, South Africa. Summer semester 2012, Jeanne Freeland-Graves will lead students as they discover the region’s true wealth, its rich and complex cultural and political history. Students will prepare South African Xhosa cuisine; they will visit food production sites and community nutrition
The Lab School is planting the seeds for life-long learning. Adult learners use the Lab School to observe young children as they develop and grow.
clinics, working with HIV-positive and diabetic children in Cape Town and surrounding townships. Freeland-Graves has led previous trips all over the world. In years past students have learned about culture, food, and health in Syracuse, Italy; Southeast Asia; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Cordoba, Argentina.
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Whelan’s research focuses on elucidating the role DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, plays in enhancing the effects of chemotherapies on prostate cancer.
human impact
Nutritional Sciences Undergraduate Presents Research at National Conference on Cancer “Be prepared to be wrong,” is the advice of Elizabeth Blackburn to young cancer researchers gathered to hear her keynote speech at the prestigious American Association of Cancer Researchers (AACR) 2011 conference held in Orlando, Florida. This is surprising advice coming from a biological researcher who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009 in Physiology or Medicine for her work on telomeres, the protective structures at the end of chromosomes. But if you have Bagel Bites, you are prepared for almost anything. Among Dr. Blackburn’s audience was Kaitlin Whelan, a nutritional sciences senior. Kaitlin attended AACR to present her research poster, “Defining the Role of NF-κB as a Target for Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Prostate Cancer.” Working with David Cavazos and Linda deGraffenried, Whelan’s research focuses on elucidating the role DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, plays in enhancing the effects of chemotherapies on prostate cancer.
NF-κB is a protein complex that controls DNA transcription and is involved in cellular responses to environmental stressors by promotion cell proliferation and inhibiting programmed cell death. Whelan and her research sponsors sought to discover the role omega-3 fatty acids play in modulating KF-κB activity. Whelan has worked in the deGraffenried laboratory since the beginning of her sophomore year. “I started out just making buffers, but graduated to babysitting cell lines,” Whelan says. The cell lines she ‘babysits’ are the prostate cancer cells which must be carefully tended before they can be used. When asked how she felt presenting her research to a prestigious gathering of cancer researchers, Whelan said, “I think I held my own. I was approached by an MD working a Duke University who commented how rare it was to see a woman working on prostate cancer.” After graduation Whelan hopes to attend medical school where she would like to study pediatrics. Blackburn, as her talk continued, discussed the sometimes perilous balance between being a wife and mother and being a research scientist. “She told us to not kill ourselves if we couldn’t do everything. She told a story about how she kept Bagel Bites in her refrigerator just in case one of her children had a school event. She said that other mothers might make homemade cupcakes, but the kids always loved her Bagel Bites,” Whelan recalls. Kaitlin Whelan is currently preparing her first academic paper for publication in a scientific journal.
C ONSE RVING H IS T ORY Nicole Villarreal, a Textile and Apparel Technology graduate student and apparel designer, has been working with the film history and costume conservation staff at the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) to preserve costumes designed by Walter Plunkett and worn by Vivien Leigh in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind, part of the David O. Selznick collection. Villarreal’s work began with a detailed conservation report on the condition of the storied dark green cotton velvet “Curtain Dress.” Often working with a microscope, Villarreal is arresting further deterioration of the garment, “In a way, we are just trying to stop the bleeding.” Villarreal’s report is a guide for Cara Varnell, a conservator who is shoring up the costumes’ construction to ready the dresses for display at the HRC’s exhibition scheduled for 2014, the film’s 75th anniversary.
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Above: Kaitlin Whelan tends her prostate cancer cells under the fume hood at Dell Pediatric Research Institute. Below: Kaitlin presents her research at AACR.
The Kids Are (Not) All Right: Dr. Su Yeong Kim Examines Perpetual Foreigner Stereotype in Adolescents
“It’s important for these children that they develop a strong sense of who they are so they can value who they are.”
While Chinese American and Asian American adolescents are stereotyped as quiet, obedient, and compliant “model minorities,” their often painful daily experience is masked by success, accomplishment in academics and the arts. These adolescents exist in a liminal world; while they are stereotypically identified as “model minorities,” they are also perceived as being resistant or hostile to mainstream American culture, inassimilable. Su Yeong Kim and her colleagues from The University of Texas at Austin followed the mental health outcomes for 444 Chinese American adolescents as they moved from middle to high school. She found that middle school students who reported that they were experiencing difficulty with English proficiency in middle school later reported that they spoke English with an accent when they reached high school. English proficiency is not only important for school success; it’s a key factor in acculturation, the process of adapting to a new dominant culture by borrowing habits of language, dress, or behavior. Chinese American adolescents struggle with a perpetual foreigner stereotype, the perception that they will always be “foreign” no matter where they were born. “Perpetual foreigner stereotype is further endorsed by accents. People are more ready to assume that these young people were not born in the United States. They are more likely to experience discrimination,” Kim says. The data revealed separate trajectories for boy and girls. For girls lower English language proficiency led to perceived chronic daily discrimination. Girls were, for example, more likely to endorse the statements like, “I am treated with less courtesy than other people.” Boys were more likely to indicate that they had discriminatory victimization experiences. “Boys were more likely to have been hit, kicked, or pushed while being bullied,” says Kim. Both boys and girls followed for the study were more likely to report depressive symptoms.
Kim says: “It’s important for these children that they develop a strong sense of who they are so they can value who they are. We need to make sure that the experiences of ethnic minorities are validated. We need for them to understand that they are not invisible.” Dr. Su Yeong Kim’s article, “Accent, Perpetual Foreigner Stereotype, and Perceived Discrimination as Indirect Links Between English Proficiency and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese American Adolescents,” was recently published in the journal Developmental Psychology. Her research is funded, in part, by grants from Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development and from Jacobs Foundation Young Investigator Grant. Dr. Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences.
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A new research study suggests that stress may not always be bad for a relationship and can, in fact, be beneficial.
human scale
Stress: It Does a Marriage Good Couples who report larger amounts of stress outside their marriages also tend to report less satisfaction within their marriages. You have probably heard the classic “joke” about a person being mad at the boss, but she can’t yell at her boss, so she goes home and yells at her husband, who, in turn, yells at their son, who then kicks the dog, who wonders what it did wrong. Perhaps not a very funny joke (or not funny at all), but it does illustrate a phenomenon that researchers call stress spillover: when stress from outside the marriage causes problems inside the marriage. A new research study, however, suggests that stress may not always be bad for a relationship and can, in fact, be beneficial.1 In two studies of newlywed couples, researchers found that couples who had effective problem-solving skills and were supportive of one another were more satisfied in their relationship when they experienced a moderate amount stress (including health, financial, work, school, and interpersonal problems) at the start of their marriage. In particular, couples transitioning to parenthood who had experienced stress prior to becoming parents (as we know becoming parents is a challenging event for many couples) and were supportive of each other were likely to be happier in their marriages as compared to supportive couples who didn’t experience stress early in their marriage. Practice may not make perfect, but it does appear that practice managing stress can benefit couples that already have good relationship skills. And that is an important caveat—couples that didn’t have good relationship skills when newly married did not benefit from experiencing stress early in their marriages. It would appear that practicing bad skills does not make them better. So stress can do a marriage good, but only for those with ‘skillz’. Written by Dr. Marci Gleason for Science of Relationships (scienceofrelationships.com). Marci Gleason and Tim Loving,
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both faculty members in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, are regular contributors to Science of Relationships (scienceofrelationships.com). Science of Relationships is, really, just that—active and productive researchers in the field of relationship science writing and discussing their field of expertise. Lisa Neff’s longitudinal study of early marriage, the Austin Marriage Project, yielded the data that resulted in the publication of “Stress resilience in early marriage: Can practice make perfect?” recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Neff’s research is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation. 1
Neff, L. A., & Broady, E. F. (2011). Stress resilience in early marriage: Can practice make
perfect? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, advanced online publication.
AP RI LE B E NNE R NAME D A 2011 N AE D/S P E N CE R P O S T DO CT O RAL F E LLO W Aprile Benner, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, has received a 2011 National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Benner’s awardwinning project, “School Demographics, Marginalization, & Academic Progress,” examines whether, why, and when students at the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic margins of their schools are more likely to struggle both socioemotionally and academically. “She is a superstar,” notes Deborah Jacobvitz, HDFS department chair. “She has transformed our understanding of the interrelations among adolescents’ friendships, ethnic background, and academic performance. Her work has critical implications for developing social policies to help children in America achieve their potential.”
“My work will explain the genetic part of the link LUN C H IS IN T H E B AG
between obesity, diabetes, and birth defects. But
A team led by Sara Sweitzer and
this is only the beginning part. My next goal
Margaret Briley conducted a nutritional intervention to improve
is to put the pieces together to have a better
the nutritive quality of parentpacked lunches. The research-
understanding of the mechanisms.”
ers monitored the lunches of preschool-aged children at six child care centers and noticed that the lunches lacked vegetables and
as a risk factor for NTDs. If you take VPA, your body weight is likely to increase. We don’t understand why VPA increases body weight, but we do know that both this drug and obesity cause birth defects. There are some interesting links here. One hypothesis is that arsenic and diabetes share some common mechanisms that cause birth defects. VPA and obesity both cause NTDs and they, too, might have a common mechanism. We are looking at one outcome and trying to identify what all of the various factors have in common.
whole grains. Sweitzer observes, “Over 40% of the lunches at all six centers failed to provide one-third of the children’s recommended dietary fiber, Vitamin A, Calcium and iron. The most frequently packed foods were bread, cheese and apples or applesauce.” Called “Lunch Is in the Bag,” the program
How common are birth defects?? HZ: Birth defects impact 1 in 1000 births or about 324,000 births worldwide.
provided education to preschool children and their parents. A few weeks after the intervention, the contents of children’s lunch sacks were again observed. Sweitzer and Briley found that servings of vegetables and whole grains had
Before She is a Mother: Q&A with Pediatric Geneticist
increased suggesting child care centers could serve as a fulcrum, tipping the scale away the diseases associated with poor nutrition: obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
How would you characterize the work going on in the Finnell lab at Dell Pediatric Research Institute? Huiping Zhu: We’re interested in the etiology, the causes, of birth defects, more specifically we are interested in discovering the etiology of neural tube defects (NTDs). Our research focuses on two main factors: environment and genetics. Our ultimate goal is to prevent birth defects. What is already known about NTDs? HZ: Researchers have been studying the role environmental factors play in the etiology of birth defects for many years. They’ve identified several factors with a known connection to NTDs. For example, there are many commonly known drugs that have an established link to NTDs. Recently we’ve learned that diabetes and obesity in the mother are risk factors for the development of birth defects in her baby. Folic acid protects against many kinds of birth defects. Why doesn’t the story end there? HZ: We’ve known for more than 20 years that folic acid is important for the prevention of birth defects, especially NTDs. Our food is now fortified with folic acid, but we still don’t understand how it works to prevent birth defects. What we do know is that it doesn’t do the same thing for everyone; folic acid offers varying degrees of protection. There are other environmental exposures linked to birth defects. We’re still studying those. Some of my colleagues are looking closely at the link between arsenic and birth defects. Whether arsenic is teratogenic is still controversial. There appears to be a higher risk for diabetes in areas with high arsenic contamination. As we know, maternal diabetes is an established risk factor for many birth defects. The anti-epileptic drug valproic acid (VPA) has been established
How will your work benefit women preparing for motherhood? HZ: There are almost 100 genes that have been related to developing obesity, so if you have certain mutations, you tend to develop obesity or diabetes. While you might not be obese or diabetic at the time when you get pregnant, you might have a gene that makes you prone to developing diabetes when you are 50. My hypothesis is, if you have the susceptibility that will ultimately make you obese or diabetic, even if you are not obese or diabetic when you are pregnant, your body is already in less than optimal condition. In order to develop to its full potential, the embryo needs the best possible environment. The central nervous system is very sensitive to anything the mother’s body provides; so if the mother has an already-compromised internal environment, she will provide a compromised environment for the developing embryo. She might not know it. She is not obese yet; she is not diabetic yet. I am testing these genes to see if they predict the outcome of the pregnancies. My work will explain the genetic part of the link between obesity, diabetes, and birth defects. But this is only the beginning part. My next goal is to put the pieces together to have a better understanding of the mechanisms. What caused you to choose your area of research? HZ: When I was pregnant with my second child, I developed gestational diabetes. I was shocked. I am not overweight; I eat healthy. I did some research which showed that there is a high incidence of gestational diabetes among Asian women. I realized it must also include genetics. I wanted to help women to think about and understand their risk of complications and birth defects before they get pregnant. It will be too late to start after a woman is already pregnant, so I chose to focus on mothers before they become mothers. Dr. Huiping Zhu is a research assistant professor who works as part of Dr. Richard Finnell’s research team. Dr. Zhu’s work is funded in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
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human affairs
Nutritional Epidemiologist Michele Forman Joins the Faculty of Nutritional Sciences In 1985, Michele Forman shifted a paradigm. “I convinced them that a monitoring system to collect data on self-reported height and weight would be beneficial,” says Forman. “It was really quite a challenge.” In the mid-1980s, Forman was working at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as an epidemiologist and was of a team that developed the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System as section leader. By convincing her colleagues to survey for height and weight, Forman gave us one of the most powerful visual representations of the obesity epidemic in the United States, the CDC’s obesity maps. Dr. Michele Forman, a scientist of the highest caliber, will begin a new chapter in her career as a nutritional epidemiologist here at the university. Formerly a professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Forman has been appointed as a Bruton Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. Forman—whose degrees include a BA from Rutgers University in medical anthropology and music and an MSPH in epidemiology, an
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MA in nutritional anthropology, and a Ph.D. in nutritional epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—began her three decades-long research career examining maternal and child health with a special focus on pregnancy outcomes in disadvantaged populations. As her research foci have shifted from low birth-weight to chronic disease, the stillpoint has remained fixed; she examines the developmental origins of disease. The epidemiologic, anthropometric, and dietary strands of her research career meet at the nexus of early life exposures and cancer, energy balance and cancer. Forman is working on a longitudinal study of three birth cohorts in Norway to identify Michele Forman is how a mother’s health in pregnancy impacts her children as working on a they age. The Norwegian study follows the children of mothlongitudinal study ers who develop preeclampsia in pregnancy, with dangerous of three birth elevation of blood pressure and high concentrations of cohorts in Norway protein in urine that occurs at a worldwide rate of 3–5% of pregto identify how a nancies per year. Surprisingly, preeclampsia is associated with mother’s health in a lower risk of breast cancer in mothers and daughters and pregnancy impacts a lower risk for prostate and testicular cancers in sons. Dr. her children as Forman hypothesized that children born of these pregnancies they age. experience a delay in puberty which reduces cumulative endogenous levels of hormones across the life course and thus lowers breast, testicular and prostate cancer risk. Forman and her colleagues are following the children to identify the windows of susceptibility and vulnerability to chronic disease as they age. Forman has arrived in Austin with both developing studies and with two emerging studies in tow. Forman has been working with colleagues at Baylor to establish the Harris County study location for the National Children’s Study, a congressionally mandated longitudinal prospective study of children and their environment from preconception through age 21 designed to assess gene/environment interactions. Forman is currently conducting formative research in diet and anthropometry for the overall National Children’s study in both Harris and Travis Counties, and she will lead the study location in Travis County. If paradigm shifting is part of Forman’s past, it is also part of her future. Working collaboratively with researchers across disciplines, Forman will work with researchers working on animal models, bringing her own work on humans, to maximize what is understood about early life exposures and disease as well as energy balance and cancer. Forman states her plans for the future, “I am working with a core team I brought with me from Houston plus new faculty hires and their teams in nutritional epidemiology. Together, we will train the next generation of investigators.”
Dr. Karen Fingerman, Developmental Psychologist, Joins the Faculty of Human Development and Family Sciences The term “sandwich generation” was first used in 1975 by anthropologist David Plath to describe middle-aged adults emotionally and financially supporting three layers of their families simultaneously—middle-aged adults taking care of young children at home and aging parents at the same time. While the descriptor is compelling, Karen Fingerman’s research doesn’t support its accuracy. Although some Americans’ experiences do involve being sandwiched between generations, Fingerman’s research indicates that, most middle-aged adults pivot between grown children and aging parents. The bulk of financial, emotional, and practical support goes to the adult children. Should an elderly parent become disabled, the flow of resources is reversed, but the average offspring still receives
considerable support. The transition to adulthood is considerably more complicated than it was thirty years ago. Young adults face challenges finding a good job, spend longer completing their education, and settling on a mate than in the past. Their parents step up to provide the support they need to get settled in adulthood. Dr. Karen Fingerman, a developmental psychologist, was recently welcomed to the faculty of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS) at The University of Texas at Austin. Formerly the Berner-Hanley Professor in Gerontology in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Purdue University, Fingerman will join the HDFS faculty as a professor. She received her BA in psychology from Harvard University and her MA and PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan. After obtaining her PhD, Fingerman completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Fingerman’s significant body of innovative research focuses on the role that family relationships play in the well-being of adults during middle and late life. She has studied generational differences in emotion during family conflict, systems of family obligation and resource exchange, the implicit rules that regulate social exchanges across generations, and how conflicts between adult family members are initiated and resolved. She focuses on
the support one generation gives to another and on the emotional impact of providing such supports across generations. Rather than collecting data from a representative of just one generation, Fingerman empirically examines family relationships across multiple generations by employing behavioral observations and recording questionnaire responses of multiple informants. Processing this data requires sophisticated statistical methods. The complexity and subtly of Fingerman’s studies reflect the many facets of family emotional life, a rich area often neglected by researchers focused on the problem of caring for ailing older adults. At The University of Texas at Austin Dr. Fingerman will continue her studies of multigenerational families and look at the effects of the economic downturn on families. She will study changes in support the three generations exchange due to financial difficulties, job loss, or physical and mental health problems. Middle-aged adults are supporting their parents and offspring as needs arise, but in most families the bulk of support flows downstream to offspring. Parents are not are not giving without recompense, middle-aged parents’ sense of well-being is tied to how well their children are doing. Parents seem to be invested in the adage, “You are only as happy as your least happy child.”
D R. AL E THA C. H U S T ON
DR. RO S E ANN LO O P RE T I RE S
Dr. Aletha C. Huston’s career at the University of Texas has been one of
Dr. RoseAnn Loop’s has recently announced her plans to retire from The
tremendous service and innumerable academic accolades.Above all, she
University of Texas at Austin. Loop, who began her career at the university
has distinguished herself by mentoring generations of undergraduate and
as a graduate student in chemistry, has served as a faculty member in the
graduate students.
Department of Nutritional Sciences for over 40 years.
Huston, the Pricilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Child Develop-
Loop’s passion has always been teaching of scientific writing to under-
ment, has announced that she will retire from The University of Texas
graduate students, working patiently to mentor students as they hone their
at Austin. A member of the faculty of the Department of Human Devel-
analytical and research skills. Her wide-reaching impact in her decades of
opment and Family Sciences for 15 years, Huston has been a principal
teaching cannot be underestimated; students leave her classroom with a
investigator in the New Hope Project, and a collaborator in the Next
far greater mastery of investigation and expression.
Generation Project. She was an investigator in the NICHD Study of Early
Child Care and Youth Development, and conducted a program of research
Texas at Austin. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayton Foundation
on television and children, co-directing The Center for Research on the
of Biochemical Institute and Department of Chemistry before joining the
Loop received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from The University of
Influences of Television on Children (CRITC).
Department of Nutritional Sciences.
Huston earned her BA in psychology from
Loop’s core research focused on lipids and heart disease and alcohol-
Stanford and her MA/PhD in psychology and child
ism. She explored the use of dietary interventions for anemia and alcoholic
development from the University of Minnesota.
rehabilitation, the effects of alcohol on the nutritional status of humans, the development of animal models of human alcoholism as well as multimedia technology for interactive, individualized learning experiences
Above: Aletha Huston receives bound editions of her life’s work. Her professional accomplishments were celebrated with a festschrift. Middle: Priscilla Flawn and Phyllis Richards offer their congratulations. Bottom: Huston is joined by past and current graduate students.
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The University of Texas at Austin | 1 University Station, A2700 | Austin, Texas 78712
What is happening with you? We would like to know about the wonderful work you are doing! Please take a moment to drop us a line. Melissa Tucker, Alumni Relations | melissa.tucker@austin.utexas.edu | 512 475 6710 The School of Human Ecology | The University of Texas at Austin | 1 University Station, A2700 | Austin, Texas 78712
Upcoming Events J O H N M IL NE R Jean Andrews Centennial Visiting Professor, National Institutes of Health March 1, 2012
FA S HION S HOW April 19, 2012 Frank Erwin Center WEEK OF T H E YOU NG CH ILD The week of April 22–28, 2012 various locations
WA LT ER WILLET T Jean Andrews Centennial Visiting Professor, Harvard University October 18, 2012
CEN T EN N IA L CEL EB R AT IO N November 8–9, 2012