Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Ph.D.

Senior Scholar

Outrageous Older Woman Ruth Harriet Jacobs, 1924-2013

Ruth Harriet Jacobs joined the Center for Research on Women at the Wellesley Centers for Women in 1979. She was a professor of sociology at Boston University, chair of the sociology department at Clark University, and a distinguished visiting professor at the College of William and Mary.

Dr. Jacobs has given many talks in low-income elder housing throughout the state of Massachusetts under sponsorship of the Tenants Assistance Program of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency. The majority of her audiences are women, as women have longer lives and older women are among the poorest Americans. Her talks, Aging Outrageously and Courageously, the ABCs of Aging, and Women After Eighty: Reflecting, Advocating, Living Fully, featured advice on self care and the elderly getting the help they need.

Dr. Jacobs has also spoken throughout New England and the country at senior centers, continuing care communities, assisted living facilities, Red Hat Society meetings, and to professionals in the field of aging as requested. In addition to her presentations on aging, she has also taught memoir writing as a creative way to put our lives in perspective. She is the author of nine books including Be an Outrageous Older Woman, published by Harper Collins, and ABCs for Seniors: Successful Aging Wisdom from an Outrageous Gerontologist, published in 2006 by Hatala Geroproducts.

She taught in the Lifetime Learning programs at Brandeis University and Regis College, and Continuing Education Unit classes for psychologists, nurses, physicians, social workers, and others who care for elders. In addition to her nine books, she has contributed many chapters and articles to anthologies and professional and literary journals. Her play, Happy Birthday, read from scripts and cast from audiences, is distributed by the Wellesley Centers for Women. She has been awarded grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Education, and many non-government foundations and agencies. Dr. Jacobs has received numerous awards, including one for mentoring, and has been given residence at artists' colonies. Dr. Jacobs received a B.S. from Boston University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University.

Nancy L. Mullin, M.Ed.

Research Scientist

Nancy Mullin served as the director of both the Project on Teasing and Bullying (2000-2008) and the Preschool Empathy Project (1998-2008). Since she joined the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) in 1990, she was actively involved in projects concerned with curriculum development, teacher training, consultation and research.

Prior to joining WCW, Ms. Mullin coordinated Child Care Information and Referral services at the Child Care Resource Center in Cambridge, MA and has worked in various educational and hospital-based elementary and early childhood special education settings as teacher, trainer, consultant, advocate, and member of infant and child assessment teams.

While at WCW, Ms. Mullin conducted research-based training and consultation about bullying prevention nationally. Her work focused on bringing research and best practices about bullying prevention into schools and promotes awareness about the negative effects that bullying and related gender role stereotypes have on both school climate and student performance. Her bullying-prevention work includes several publications: Quit It!: A Teacher's Guide on Teasing and Bullying for Use With Students in Grades K-3 (1998); Selected Bibliography About Teasing and Bullying for Grades K-8: Revised and Expanded Edition (2003) and Relational Aggression and Bullying: It’s More Than Just A Girl Thing (2003).

Ms. Mullin is also a Training Director for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Group, providing national training-of-trainers in North America, training and support for state-wide networks, and training and implementation support to schools in New England. As a founding member of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Group in North America, she is also actively involved in expanding and developing materials that help to operationalize the Olweus model for US and North American Schools.

As Director of the Preschool Empathy Project, Ms. Mullin provided training, consultation, and curriculum development for early childhood caregivers. She co-authored a pilot program to teach empathy in center and home-based preschool settings and developed a revised curriculum-guide based on this work. Her work on this project both informed and integrated her efforts in the field of bullying prevention.

Ms. Mullin received a B.S. in Elementary and Special Education from Slippery Rock University and received a full fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh, where she received a M.Ed. in Special Education and Rehabilitation, specializing in Early Childhood Education.

Katherine E. Morrison, Ph.D.

Dr. Katherine Elizabeth Morrison was a postdoctoral research associate and public health researcher at the Wellesley Centers for Women from 2002-2007. She dedicates her career to exploring the impact of violence against women in communities of color and finding methods for preventing violence against women.

Dr. Morrison began her career in 1999 as a doctoral student at the Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. During this time, Dr. Morrison had the good fortune of working with women who were victimized in abusive relationships and listening to the multitude of stories that these courageous women had to share. It was during this time that she became exceptionally mindful of the devastating impact of violence on the physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being of women who had been abused by the men who claimed to love them. As a result of these stories and many other stories of misogyny, Dr. Morrison chose to become involved in the ongoing fight to stop violence against women.

As a public health researcher, Dr. Morrison strove to discover innovative methods of preventing intimate partner and sexual violence within the African-American community. She also had interests in the empowerment of women and girls, community-based education, cultural sensitivity and competency among service organizations, the influence of legal processes on women of color in child custody cases, and human rights as it relates to violence against women.

Further, Dr. Morrison had designed rigorous research that has allowed the “voices” of victimized women to be represented in scientific and community-based literature. She has spoken to a number of women about their experiences with intimate partner and sexual violence and has presented her findings to a number of different organizations in an effort to enhance the audiences’ understanding of the challenges that women of color face when they are involved in abusive relationships. A strong interest of Dr. Morrison’s was exploring the concept known as the ‘Strong Black Woman’ and its influences on the help-giving behavior of service providers as well as the help-seeking behavior of African-American victims of abuse.

In addition, Dr. Morrison was the director of the Women’s Insights about Violence Project, a research study designed to explore the experiences of victimized women who represent different racial and ethnic groups. She authored several publications including a preventive handbook entitled "Talkin’ and Testifyin’: African-American Women Talk about Domestic Violence" that was distributed to Boston-area community-based organizations. A sought-after speaker, Dr. Morrison has been invited to present her work at organizations such as the Boston Public Health Commission and the Father Friendly Initiative (Boston, MA) as well as to different scholarly groups at Northeastern University, Boston University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Morrison has also given lectures at various regional and national conferences including the American Public Health Association and the Association for Women in Psychology.

Finally, Dr. Morrison has been the recipient of several honors including the Malcolm J. Dantzler award from the South Carolina Public Health Association and the American Public Health Association’s Delta Omega award for outstanding research. In addition, Morrison was privileged to be one of the few recipients to simultaneously receive both the Norman J. Arnold Outstanding Abstract Award and the Delta Omega Outstanding Abstract Award at the South Carolina Public Health Association’s annual meeting.