Helen Janc Malone, EdD

Institute for Educational Leadership 

(Chair) 

Dr. Malone’s research is situated at the intersection of OST and educational change. She currently serves on the editorial boards of the Afterschool Matters Journal and the Journal of Expanded Learning Opportunities and is a peer reviewer of several youth-focused academic journals. Her recent representative publications include: Leading Educational Change (Teachers College Press, 2013), Building a Broader Learning Agenda: The Evolution of Child and Youth Programs Toward the Education Sector (Harvard University, 2013, thesis), The Futures of School Reform (Harvard Education Press, 2012, book chapter co-author), Expanded Learning Time and Opportunities (New Directions for Youth Development, 2011, volume editor), and Year-Round Learning (Harvard Family Research Project, 2011, co-author). She is the 2011 PDK International Emerging Leader Award recipient and 2014 Politics of Education Association Distinguished Dissertation finalist. She holds a Doctor of Education degree from Harvard University.

Valerie Futch, PhD

Youth-Nex, University of Virginia 

(Program Chair)

Dr. Futch is a Research Associate at Youth-Nex, The University of Virginia’s Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. She studies adolescent identity development, youth-adult relationships in out-of-school programs, and how these experiences inform emerging adulthood development. She received her BS in Psychology from Stetson University in 2002. Prior to joining Youth-Nex, Valerie was a student in Social-Personality Psychology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her dissertation documented the developmental impact of participation in a peer-education teen-theatre after-school program called The SOURCE, located in Sarasota, FL. Since moving to Charlottesville and starting work at Youth-Nex, she has become more immersed in the OST world by volunteering as a mentor at a local computer-related after-school program and assisting an arts-based after-school program in developing a system of data collection and carrying out a participatory evaluation study of their effectiveness. She has since received grants to conduct a longitudinal follow-up study of a middle-school girls’ mentoring program and to understand the development of youth relationships with informal mentors and important non-parental adults. She joined the OST SIG in 2012 and in 2013 was awarded the Emerging Scholar Award. As program chair, she will capitalize on the energy of the Youth-Nex annual conference, which will focus on out-of-school-time to encourage a methodologically and theoretically diverse set of papers and panels that foster creative and critical discussion about next steps for the OST world. 

Myriam Baker, PhD

Knowledge Universe

(Secretary/Treasurer)

Myriam L. Baker is a school psychologist by training and practice, and continues to hold her professional license in Colorado. Through over fifteen years of private consultation as well as in the role of Director of Research and Evaluation for several organizations, she has designed and evaluated child, youth, and family-focused programs for ECE-12 educational, mental health, juvenile justice, and community-based organizations.   She currently is in the role of Director of Research and Evaluation for Knowledge Universe, U.S., and working on a program evaluation of the Champions© out of school time program in collaboration with the Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality in Ypsilanti, MI. Dr. Baker has served as Newsletter Editor and Secretary/Treasurer for the AERA OST SIG in the 2012-2014 term, and received her Master’s degree in School Psychology (1995) and Doctorate in Educational Psychology (2001) from the University of Denver.

Corey Bower, PhD

Niagara University

(Newsletter Editor)

Corey Bunje Bower finished his Ph.D. in Leadership & Policy Studies at Vanderbilt's Peabody College in 2013 and is now Assistant Professor of Leadership & Policy at Niagara University in New York.  Prior to grad school, he taught 6th grade and coached debate at a since-closed middle school in The Bronx and saw much larger changes in students doing the latter.  His research and teaching interests center around urban poverty, academic performance, and social/educational policy.  His current research focuses on how psychosocial factors and conditions related to urban poverty affect children and families – particularly relating to educational outcomes – and examines the ability of social policy to mitigate these effects and narrow achievement gaps.  He is currently working on a book synthesizing research on how neighborhoods/housing, health/health care, and family/home environment affect the academic performance of the urban poor and exploring possible policy responses.  He is a long-time blogger and enjoys writing about and discussing issues in the field.

Tom Akiva, PhD

University of Pittsburgh

(Website Editor)

Tom Akiva is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the department of Psychology in Education. Prior to receiving his PhD, Akiva spent nearly two decades working as a practitioner and consultant in the youth development field. He helped design the Youth Program Quality Intervention, an assessment- and coaching-based improvement program that was found effective in a randomized controlled field trial. His research focuses on motivation and learning during out-of-school time. Current projects focus on youth-adult partnerships, adolescent motivation to attend youth programs, youth organizing, and professional development for youth workers.