Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, an associate professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at 海角论坛 and the USC Brain and Creativity Institute, has been named a member of the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, a new committee created by the Aspen Institute this past week.
The is among the country鈥檚 foremost organizations using scholarship to improve society, bringing researchers together to address complex global issues. According to the institute, the new council鈥檚 goal will be 鈥渢o establish a critical need for integrating social and emotional development with academic learning in K-12 education,鈥 culminating in a 5-10 year plan that recommends specific action in research, practice and policy. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and others are funding the council鈥檚 work through 2018.
Social-emotional learning, which is at the center of Immordino-Yang鈥檚 research, has gained added emphasis under the federal , signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2015.
鈥淚n a time when America鈥檚 deep-running social inequities are bubbling to the surface of public consciousness, it is growing increasingly clear that schools have a major role to play鈥攑ossibly the major role to play鈥攊n empowering the next generation of American citizens to rebuild a just, equitable and productive society,鈥 Immordino-Yang says. 鈥淚 am heartened that the Aspen Institute has organized a concerted initiative integrating efforts to support social, emotional and academic learning, and honored and humbled to participate.鈥
Current membership in the council is listed at 25 scholars and researchers.
This appointment is one of several recent honors for Immordino-Yang. She was one of 30 scholars chosen to participate in the AERA Knowledge Forum Centennial policy initiative. She is currently serving on the National Research Council/National Academies of Sciences committee writing the new edition of How People Learn.
Her work has also garnered recent media attention. In early September, her research on how poverty affects brain development in adolescents led a cover story in Newsweek. She was also featured in an episode of NOVA on PBS, exploring in the future. Last fall, she published the book Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience (W. W. Norton & Co., 2015), which explains how emotions are central to the learning process.
Throughout her work, Immordino-Yang has expressed the urgency of considering the whole person when viewing children鈥檚 learning.
鈥淥nly when we understand how social, emotional and academic learning are co-dependent can we begin to make genuine and much-needed progress in education,鈥 she says.
For media inquiries, please contact Ross Brenneman at rossbren@rossier.usc.edu or (213) 740-2327.
