Speaking

Topics I'm Passionate About

POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

• I draw from my own and other people’s research in child and adolescent development, neuroscience, and education to talk about tools for raising and educating genuinely successful kids. I use my own research-based framework, The Compass Advantage, to convey eight core abilities every child needs to succeed and how each is nurtured by families, schools, and communities. This framework is based on my decade of research in positive youth development.

• You may want to read a few of my articles on positive youth development:
  Successful Kids Need 8 Core Abilities: How to Parent with Purpose, Roots of Action
  Applying Positive Youth Development Principles in the Classroom, a series at Edutopia
  Positive Youth Development: Research, Principles, and Practices, Roots of Action

• Audience: Parents, educators, and/or community leaders — any group of adults that impact the development of youth

YOUTH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

• I draw from research in the field of youth civic engagement, transformative learning, and identity development, including research from my study, Civic Learning at the Edge: Transformative Stories of Highly Engaged Youth, to talk about how citizenship in an integral part of child and adolescent development.

• I link youth civic engagement to The Compass Advantage, a learning framework I created through my research as a Fellow at the Institute for Social Innovation at Fielding Graduate University from 2011 to present.

• You may want to read a few of my articles on youth civic engagement:
  The Secret to Youth Moral Development, Psychology Today
  Youth Leadership: Engaging Young People for Social Good, Roots of Action
  What’s Wrong in America? Psychology Today

• Audience: Professionals and leaders in the fields of civic engagement, civics education, youth development programs, or school communities of parents, educators, and civic leaders

FAMILY-SCHOOL-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

• I merge the research from the fields of family engagement in education and positive youth development, pointing out how the two are systemically connected.

• I draw from systems thinking, complexity theory, and the organizational sciences, to help audiences reframe family-school engagement with a focus on the positive development of children.

• You may want to read a few of my articles related to family-school-community partnerships, including the principles I weave into my presentations:
  Boundary Dynamics: Implications for Building Parent-School Partnerships, The School Community Journal
  Collective Impact for Youth: Is Your Community Making a Difference? Roots of Action
  Developmental Equity: Path to Student Success? Psychology Today

• Audience: Educators, parents, and community leaders

“Marilyn's presentation at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service was a huge hit! Her research and thinking inspires us to dive more deeply into the important work of engaging youth in our communities." -- Amy Smith, President, Points of Light Action Networks, Atlanta, GA.

"Marilyn's keynote on youth civic engagement at the National Boys & Girls Club Conference was inspiring. Her insight has allowed our organization to enhance our services from general volunteer engagement to youth-centered civic action where kids develop pride and a true sense of belonging in their communities." -- Lisa Hunter, Executive Director, Boys & Girls Club, Albany, NY

"Marilyn is an excellent writer and wonderful speaker. Her research will be of interest to every teacher, parent, and counselor who hopes to inspire citizenship and positive development in young people. She is a leader in this burgeoning field." -- Judith Stevens-Long, Ph.D., Professor of Human & Organization Development, Fielding Graduate University