Staff: Susan Nall Bales | Nat Kendall-Taylor | Julie Sweetland | Melissa Levitt Seldin | Yndia Lorick-Wilmot | Shannon Arvizu | Moira O'Neil | Michael Erard | Eric Lindland | Alexis Celeste Bunten | Adam F. Simon | Michael Baran | Rob Shore | Abigail Haydon | Erika Rydberg | Chris Vo | Liz Merkhofer Fellows: Linda Bowen | Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. | Prajwal Kulkarni | Tiffany Manuel | Ezra Markowitz | Curt McPhail | Anna Mikulak | Pamela S. Morgan | Claudia Strauss | Holly Valero | Administration: Beth Fisher | Christine Nolan |
Staff
SUSAN NALL BALES is founder and president of the FrameWorks
Institute, an independent nonprofit research organization founded in 1999 to
advance the nonprofit sector’s communications capacity for framing the public
discourse about social problems.
Ms. Bales is a senior fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. She has served as a visiting scientist in the department of society, human development, and health at the Harvard School of Public Health and a visiting scholar in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was awarded the Rural Sociological Society’s 2004 award for excellence in translating research findings to policy (More…)
NAT KENDALL-TAYLOR is the Director of Research at the Institute. In this role, he employs social science theory and research methods from anthropology to improve the ability of public policy to positively influence health and social issues. This involves studying how cognitive theory can be applied in understanding how people interpret information and make meaning of their social worlds. His past research has focused on child and family health and in understanding the social and cultural factors that create health disparities and affect decision-making. As a medical anthropologist, Kendall-Taylor has conducted fieldwork on the coast of Kenya studying pediatric epilepsy and the impacts of chronic illness on family well-being. He has also applied social science methods in research in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and has conducted ethnographic research on motivation in “extreme” athletes. Kendall-Taylor has a B.A. from Emory University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Kendall-Taylor can be reached at nkendall-taylor@frameworksinstitute.org.
JULIE SWEETLAND is a sociolinguist and Director of Learning at the Institute where she leads the translation of research findings into learning tools for nonprofit leaders. Julie has been actively involved in improving teaching and learning for over a decade, first as a classroom teacher, and more recently as an educational researcher, curriculum developer, teacher educator, and education reform advocate. Prior to joining the FrameWorks Institute, she served as the Director of Teaching and Learning at Center for Inspired Teaching and launched a graduate teacher preparation program for the University of the District of Columbia. Her past research has focused on the intersection of language and race; on the role of language variation and language attitudes on student learning; and on effective professional learning for teachers. Julie's work has appeared in publications such as Journal of Sociolinguistics, Educational Researcher, and Education Week. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University and is a lecturer at her alma mater. She completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics at Stanford University.
Dr. Sweetland can be reached at jsweetland@frameworksinstitute.org.
MELISSA LEVITT SELDIN Melissa Levitt Seldin is a political scientist and Director of Management at the Institute where she leads its day-to-day management. Melissa has been actively involved in program administration, strategic planning and evaluation for over ten years. Prior to joining the FrameWorks Institute, she served as the Research Officer at the University of the District of Columbia assisting faculty with proposal writing and budgeting, administering the human subjects research protection program and other areas of post-award compliance. Her past research has focused on the gender gap in voting behavior and gays in the military. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and obtained her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Dr. Seldin can be reached at mseldin@frameworksinstitute.org.
YNDIA LORICK-WILMOT is a senior associate at the Institute with responsibilities for both Field Building and Research. Lorick-Wilmot is a trained sociologist in the areas of race, ethnic identity, immigration, and human services. Prior to joining FrameWorks, Lorick-Wilmot held a post-doctoral fellowship in sociology for the Panamanian Council of New York in collaboration with the Institute for Pan American Affairs on a project entitled “Opening Doors to African Descendants in Panama.” She has served as a consultant for nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, and several research centers in Boston and New York City in the areas of public policy research, program management, evaluation and content analysis. She has served as senior lecturer for Northeastern University’s College for Professional Studies. Lorick-Wilmot has authored and presented papers at academic conferences that explore the experiences of marginalized racial-ethnics and immigrants through a lens that emphasizes reducing inequality. Most recently, she is author of the book Creating Black Caribbean Ethnic Identity, which is part of the series The New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society (LFB Academic Publishing). Lorick-Wilmot holds a B.A. in sociology from Trinity College (Connecticut), a Graduate Certificate in women’s studies from the Radcliffe Consortium in Women’s Studies, and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Northeastern University.
Dr. Lorick-Wilmot can be reached at ylorickwilmot@frameworksinstitute.org.
MOIRA O'NEIL is Senior Researcher and Manager with the Institute. In this role, she works with an interdisciplinary team employing a range of methods to further public understanding of social issues. O’Neil is trained as a sociologist, earning her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara. O’Neil has a broad range of research interests and experiences. Her master’s thesis was an in-depth analysis of racial imagery in popular fitness magazines, and her dissertation examined the medicalization of war trauma at the turn of the twentieth century in the United States. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a research associate on projects related to immigration policy as well as illicit drug use and drug policy.
Dr. O'Neil can be reached at moneil@frameworksinstitute.org.
MICHAEL ERARD is a senior researcher with the Institute, where he develops robust explanatory metaphors and tests them in the field. He spent nearly a decade writing about language, languages, and the people who use and study them for the mainstream media, including The New York Times, Science, Wired, New Scientist, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. He is the author of Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners (2012), which the New York Times called “an entertaining, informative survey” and the Atlantic Monthly called “captivating and illuminating.” He is also the author of Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean (2007). He earned his B.A. from Williams College, and an M.A. in linguistics and Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Erard can be reached at merard@frameworksinstitute.org.
ERIC LINDLAND is a senior researcher with the Institute. Prior to joining FrameWorks, he taught anthropology at Emory University, Loyola University Chicago, and the University of Notre Dame, and before that was a high school teacher and administrator in Guatemala. As a cognitive anthropologist, his research has focused on how analogies are used in language, symbolism, and ethics to bridge meanings between differing cultural systems. In particular, he has engaged cultural modeling theory to explore the intersection of African and Western religious and medical systems. His ethnographic and historical research in Malawi centered on the challenges of therapeutic decision-making in a pluralistic religious and medical culture, and on people’s creative development of new models that combine and correlate magical, spiritual, and biomedical healing techniques. Lindland has a B.A. in political studies from Gordon College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Emory University.
Dr. Lindland can be reached at elindland@frameworksinstitute.org.
ALEXIS CELESTE BUNTEN is a senior researcher with the Institute. Her areas of expertise include heritage, interpretation, cross-cultural communication, community development, tourism, and workplace ethnography. Prior to coming to FrameWorks, she taught at UCLA and Humboldt State University, completed postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and was an invited scholar at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and University of Victoria, Wellington. Dr. Bunten’s current research examines ethnic branding and cross cultural forms of capitalism. In addition to scholarly endeavors, Dr. Bunten has contracted research and ethnography for numerous indigenous organizations, museums, and communications companies. She currently serves as the Project Ethnographer for Intellectual Property in Cultural Heritage at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Bunten received a B.A. in art history at Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology at UCLA
Dr. Bunten can be reached at abunten@frameworksinstitute.org.
ADAM F. SIMON
is a senior researcher with the Institute. He has taught courses in political communication and American politics at Yale, the University of Washington and UCLA. His latest major work, “Toward a Theory Relating Political Discourse, Media and Public Opinion,” won the American Political Science Association/International Communication Association award for Best Article in Political Communication for 2008. His current work, Mass Informed Consent: Upgrading Democracy with Polls and New Media, popularizes polling and public opinion research by introducing social scientific techniques in three empirical studies and relating media to polling results. His first book—The Winning Message: Candidate Behavior, Campaign Discourse and Democracy—broke new ground in investigating candidate behavior in American electoral campaigns. His work has also appeared in the American Political Science Review and the Journal of Communication as well as other scholarly journals. Simon earned his Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.
Dr. Simon can be reached at asimon@frameworksinstitute.org.
MICHAEL BARAN is a senior researcher at the Institute. His past research has focused on the cultural and cognitive factors influencing how children across different cultures learn about race, ethnicity, and other categories of identity. This research has taken him through Brazil, Guatemala, Spain, and the United States. Prior to joining FrameWorks, he taught courses on race and diversity, Latin America, child development, expository writing, and research methods at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He has consulted for schools and businesses about a range of diversity-related issues. He also created two popular interactive iPhone apps: Guess My Race, targeted to teenagers and adults, and Who Am I? Race Awareness Game, designed for adults to play with younger children. Both apps were developed to make learning about race fun by integrating art, technology, and game play with academic insights from various disciplines. Michael holds a B.A. from Emory University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Baran can be reached at mbaran@frameworksinstitute.org.
ROB SHORE is the manager of the Public Presentation Unit at the Institute. He specializes in the public presentation of research findings and oversees the production and dissemination of video-based and interactive digital media. Outside of FrameWorks, Shore has written and directed numerous documentary and narrative films on subjects ranging from American family ritual, to political activism, and recently, a comedy. His writing and photography have been published in Smithsonian Magazine, Worldview Magazine, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Porchlight, Anderbo, and Juked. His essay "Time Travel" was published in the collection Being There: Learning to Live Cross-Culturally (Harvard University Press, 2011). Shore graduated with highest honors from Emory University with degrees in film and anthropology. His honors thesis examined cinematic myths of the dysfunctional American family.
Mr. Shore can be reached at rshore@frameworksinstitute.org.
ABIGAIL HAYDON is the assistant to the director of research and a research associate at the Institute. A public health scholar with training in maternal and child health, developmental science, and demography, she has combined these perspectives in research on adolescent relationships and reproductive health, teen dating violence and educational and social outcomes among youth with chronic illnesses. Prior to joining FrameWorks, Abigail worked at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development as an executive branch science fellow sponsored by the American Psychological Association and the AAAS. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health. Abigail received her B.A. from Pomona College and her M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Haydon can be reached at ahaydon@frameworksinstitute.org.
ERIKA RYDBERG is a relatively new D.C. transplant born and raised in Massachusetts. She graduated from Emerson College in the spring of 2008 with a degree in Communication Studies and a specialization in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. Shortly after she spent a year in the AmeriCorps*VISTA program. She recently completed her master's in Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University. While at GW she completed a documentary short on prisoner re-entry with classmates. She also did research on The Daily Show's interaction with other media outlets and completed a practicum course on strategic communication. At FrameWorks, Erika works with the Public Presentation Unit, producing digital media.
Ms. Rydberg can be reached at erydberg@frameworksinstitute.org.
CHRIS VO Chris Vo is the digital media associate for the Public Presentation Unit at the FrameWorks Institute. He specializes in graphic design, digital photography, and audio/video production. With a dual B.S. degree in Business Management and Business Marketing from California State University, Long Beach, Chris emphasizes aesthetic functionality: information design for precise scientific communications.
Mr. Vo can be reached at cvo@frameworksinstitute.org
ELIZABETH M MERKHOFER is a research and program assistant at the FrameWorks Institute. She
received her MA in Linguistics from Georgetown University in 2013. Her
Masters thesis examines the use of "singular they" for specific
referents in Twitter, representing her research interests in situated
language use, the emergence of meaning in discourse, and the Twitter
platform specifically. Previously, she has been a research assistant at
Georgetown University, analyzing the attitudes of medical innovators
toward data sharing. Elizabeth is especially interested in the application of mixed qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis to language in use.
Ms. Merkhofer can be reached at emerkhofer@frameworksinstitute.org
Fellows
LINDA BOWEN is a fellow with the Institute and has been executive director of the Institute for Community Peace in Washington, D. C., since its inception in 1995. She has over twenty-five years of experience in violence prevention, program management and development, policy analysis, research and community building. Prior to joining ICP, she served as special assistant to the commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton Administration; assistant dean at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago; and program director at the Center for Successful Child Development in Chicago, Ill. (a precursor of community-based, comprehensive parent engagement and child development programs). Bowen had authored or co-authored papers and reports on child development, adolescent pregnancy, and parenting and violence prevention.
FRANKLIN D. GILLIAM JR. is a senior fellow with the Institute and dean of the School of Public Affairs at UCLA. He has served since 2002 as UCLA’s first-ever associate vice chancellor of community partnerships. In that role, he built a strong program of academic civic engagement through the Center for Community Partnerships. He is the founding director of the Center for Communications and Community at UCLA. At FrameWorks, Gilliam has served as project director for the Framing Race in America Project and has contributed to projects on health care, early child development, youth, and rural issues.
Gilliam is the author of Farther to Go: Reading and Cases in African-American Politics (Harcourt Brace), and has published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Social Policy Report, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Politics, Nieman Reports, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Public Opinion, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Government and Policy, Sociological Inquiry, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Psychology, Ethiopian Review and The Source.
In
2004 Gilliam was awarded the Mark O. Hatfield National Scholar Award,
Portland State University, and in 2006 he was presented with the
Distinguished Alumni, University of Iowa, 2006. Gilliam received his
B.A. from Drake University and his Ph.D. from University of Iowa.
PRAJWAL KULKARNI received his PhD in applied physics from Stanford University in 2009, and his B.S. in electrical engineering and physics from Penn State University in 2003. While his dissertation centered on space physics, Prajwal has always been interested in the intersection of science and society. He designed and taught classes on science policy as a graduate student. From 2009 – 2011, Prajwal served as a Science Policy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this role, Prajwal helped develop and deploy an environmental decision support system, coordinated numerous meetings and conferences. and organized a major conference panel on climate change communication. In his spare time, Prajwal trains for and competes in triathlons.
TIFFANY MANUEL is a fellow with the Institute and Senior Vice President of Knowledge, Impact and Strategy at Enterprise Community Partners. For four years, she served in senior level positions at FrameWorks. Prior to joining FrameWorks, Manuel served as a senior policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was an assistant professor of political science and public policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Manuel holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Chicago, a master’s degree in political science from Purdue University, and doctorate and master’s degrees in public policy from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
EZRA MARKOWITZ is a fellow with the Institute and a post-doctoral research associate at Princeton University. His research centers around the intersection of social and moral psychology, environmental conservation, communications and policy. Current projects include research on the consequences of communicating uncertain climate information with the public, an examination of the “environmental compassion fade” phenomenon, and an analysis of cross-national climate change threat perceptions. Ezra received his PhD from the University of Oregon in August, 2012 and is a former National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Scholar-in-Residence at American University and staff member at PolicyInteractive.
CURT MCPHAIL is a fellow with the Institute and program officer at the Mary Black Foundation, a private foundation focused on early childhood development and active living in Spartanburg, S.C. An avid cyclist and bike commuter, McPhail is also the founder of globalbike, a nonprofit organization that believes in the transformative power of bicycles to create social change throughout the developing world. Globalbike currently connects community care workers with bicycles in Zambia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Bolivia. Prior to joining the Mary Black Foundation, McPhail worked for Stop The Violence, a community-based violence prevention organization. In this role, he organized residents of two of Spartanburg’s most violent neighborhoods around issues of housing and violence. A graduate of Wofford College, McPhail spends his free time hiking, biking, or exploring the trails around the upstate of South Carolina with his wife and two sons.
ANNA MIKULAK is a graduate fellow with the Institute and a doctoral student of developmental science at Georgetown University. She received her B.A. from Georgetown University in psychology, with a minor in cognitive science. Previously, she conducted research investigating the possible immune system involvement in the etiology of autism-like behaviors. Having always been interested in the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and policy, she hopes to learn more about how issues are framed and the effect of framing on both policymakers and the public. In her dissertation, she plans to investigate the various ways in which child development research is disseminated and understood.
PAMELA S. MORGAN is a fellow with the Institute and president of Morgan Research Professionals, Inc. She has been associated with the Institute from its early days. She received a Ph.D. in cognitive linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has taught courses involving discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, and language in American society at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the first director of framing research at the Rockridge Institute, and was also vice president of framing and cognitive science at American Environics.
CLAUDIA STRAUSS is a fellow with the Institute and professor of anthropology at Pitzer College, Claremont, Calif. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University, and her B.A. from Brown University. Strauss has expertise in the areas of cognitive anthropology; psychological anthropology; language, culture and society; race/class/gender variation in the U.S.; social theory and culture theory; discourse analysis; and anthropology of policy. Prior to joining the faculty at Pitzer, Strauss was assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University. She has co-authored A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning with Naomi Quinn (Cambridge University Press, 1997) and is the co-editor of Human Motives and Cultural Models with Roy D’Andrade (Cambridge University Press, 1992).1992).
HOLLY VALERO is a fellow with the Institute and President and owner of HollyWorks. She specializes in creating smarter Websites that combine accessibility and visual impact with intuitive design and organic searchability. Valero’s sixteen years of Internet-specific expertise combines with over twenty years of traditional media experience in the radio, television, newspaper and educational publishing industries. A writer, activist and artist, Valero is advising FrameWorks on its next generation of interactive, educational products and tools.
Administration
BETH FISHER serves as FrameWorks’ director of administration. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communications from Towson University, Fisher worked in some of Baltimore’s leading advertising firms as a production manager. She spent ten years overseeing print production of numerous brochures, outdoor boards, print ads, posters, radio ads, and specialty items. During this time, Fisher formed relationships with the industry’s most talented printers, illustrators, photographers, and broadcast production facilities. At the same time, she was busy earning a master’s degree in early childhood development from Loyola College. For the past six years she’s put her management and organizational skills to work for FrameWorks Institute — helping to supervise projects of all sizes and complexities.
CHRISTINE NOLANserves as an administrative associate with the Institute. She received her B.S. from Drexel University in design and merchandising. After serving several years in management within the retail industry, her focus moved to advertising and public relations. As a director of production for two of the mid-Atlantic’s top firms, Nolan was responsible for purchasing and managing several million dollars in printing and production services annually. With over 13 years of field experience, she uses her leadership, communication and administrative skills to support FrameWorks’ organizational development and project management.
