In August 2016, Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D. will participate in the Mixed Methods International Research Association Conference to be held at Durham University, United Kingdom. The conference invited proposals under its theme, “Moving beyond the linear model: The role of mixed methods research in an age of complexity.” As a co-principal investigator, Charmaraman will be providing a methodological overview about recent work funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, in collaboration with Allison Tracy, Ph.D., senior research scientist, methodologist, and principal investigator. The talk is entitled, “Avoiding cultural bias in establishing program observation accuracy: Reflections on our evolving action-oriented mixed methods evaluation design,” which describes how the study began as a more traditional mixed method evaluation design with primarily a quantitative and qualitative, linear hypothesis-driven orientation (e.g., will raters improve in their program rating accuracy with different training enhancements over time?). The study program evolved into an action-oriented mixed method design that recursively used both quantitative and qualitative strands to continuously improve the online training system developed, after on-going consultation and feedback with stakeholders, community-based partners, and the study participants throughout the development and evaluation process.
Tracy Gladstone, Ph.D. will present at the symposium, “Current Challenges and Future Directions in the Prevention of Youth Depression,” during the 46th European Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, at the end of the summer. She will present on “PATH: Promoting Adolescent Health through an Internet-Based Primary Care Intervention.” The research team contends that internet-based interventions for preventing youth depression hold promise, but further research is needed to explore the efficacy of these approaches and ways of integrating emerging technologies for behavioral health into the primary care system.
Sari Pekkala Kerr, Ph.D. was invited to be part of a Finnish strategic research consortium, “Skilled employees—successful labor markets.” The consortium will be studying changes in job skill requirements over time, and projecting how that affects the Finnish labor market in the future, and exploring how the current education system should/can adjust to respond to the changing requirements. This will be done in 2017–2018. The consortium is a co-operation of several Finnish universities, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, and the Labour Institute for Economic Research.
Layli Maparyan, Ph.D. presented “The way forward and next steps,” with Abigail Burgesson, African Women’s Development Fund; Sienne Abdul-Baki, Deputy Minister for Gender, Liberia; and market women representing Nigeria during the West Africa Market Women’s Regional Research Validation Workshop organized by the African Women’s Development Fund and Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund. Burgesson is a member of the WCW Council of Advisors. Maparyan also presented “Leveraging investor and global alliances: Priorities and strategies,” with Abratha Doe from Liberia during the November 2015 workshop held in Accra, Ghana. Maparyan documented the trip with a special article and photos on the WCW blog, www.WomenChangeWorlds.org.
