Marvin McKinney, Principal Investigator
Marvin McKinney is a visiting Research Fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and a program consultant. He attained his Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in Curriculum and Instruction. Combined he has over 30 years of experience in education research, grant procurement, and consultation. He has won numerous fellowships and awards including the Bush Professional Fellowship in Child Development and Public Policy from The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute in 1982.
Donna Marie Winn, Co- Principal Investigator
Dr. Winn is a licensed Clinical Psychologist who holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Senior Research Scientist in the Social Scientist Research Institute at Duke University. She is also a member of the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention’s Girls Study Group panel to prevent adolescent delinquency. Throughout her over 20-year career, Dr. Winn has collaborated in the development and evaluation of numerous evidence-based programs to enhance social, emotional, and behavioral skills for children. Her philosophy that every child deserves appropriate and consistent affection, protection from harmful situations, and compassionate correction in order to learn and succeed. Many of the programs she has worked on incorporated a multi-systemic model that collaborated with parents, schools, mentors, and community-based organizations in addition to the children themselves. Dr. Winn has conducted over 200 workshops, training sessions, and presentations throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico, England, France, Italy, Portugal, and Ghana, and she has authored of over 15 scientific journal articles and chapters.
Oscar Barbarin, Consultant
Oscar A Barbarin, Ph.D. is the Lila L. and Douglas J. Hertz Chair Professor of Psychology at Tulane University. He earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Rutgers University in 1975 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in social psychology at Stanford University in 1983. Until 2000, he was a professor of Psychology and Social Work at the University of Michigan and professor of Psychology and Social Work and Fellow at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as President of the American Orthopsychiatric Association from 2001-2003. His research has focused on the social and familial determinants of ethnic and gender achievement gaps. His work on children of African descent extends to a 20 year longitudinal study of the effects of poverty and violence on child development in South Africa.
Pam Frome, Project Director
Dr. Frome is an Investigator at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1998. Her research has focused on program evaluation within educational contexts, particularly on factors that influence student achievement. In addition, she has studied the mechanisms, both external social factors and internal psychological processes, that influence students’ achievement-related beliefs, behaviors, and choices. Currently, her research focuses on the social and familial determinants of ethnic and gender achievement gaps. Dr. Frome is the Project Director for the PAS Initiative.
Iheoma Iruka, Investigator
Iheoma U. Iruka is an Investigator at FPG Child Development Institute. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Miami, Department of Psychology - Child Division. The focus of her dissertation work was on parental involvement and efficacy and its influence on children's school readiness and learning behaviors. Upon the completion of her doctoral degree, she worked with Westat on various projects, including Head Start’s National Reporting System and IES’ National Household Education Surveys, which focuses on early childhood child care and adolescent after-school participation. Her research centers on low-income and ethnic minority children’s school readiness and academic and social success; and the role of the family and early care and education environment in this process. Dr. Iruka is engaged in several projects focused on parenting practices and the home and early education environment and their influence on at-risk children’s optimal development.
Debbie Sadler, Data Manager
Debbie Sadler is the PAS Initiative Data Manager.
Toni Glatz, Administrator
Toni Glatz is the PAS Initiative Administrator.
