| Professors in the Field |
|
Laurie Ross
Assistant Professor of Community Development and Planning
Phone: (508) 793-7642
Email: lross@clarku.edu |
Current Research and Teaching
LAURIE ROSS, who joined the IDCE faculty in 2000, received a Ph.D. in Public Policy from University of Massachusetts, Boston, an MA from the Program for International Development and Social Change in 1995 and a B.A. in Geography and International Development in 1991 from Clark. She is the coordinator of the Healthy Options for Prevention and Education (HOPE) Coalition, a youth-adult partnership coalition created to reduce youth violence, substance use and promote adolescent mental health in the City of Worcester. She currently is the principal investigator on the Carnegie funded Worcester Education Partnership local evaluation. She has worked in grassroots community action and youth empowerment as a consultant for Coleman-Ross Consultants. Her research interests are participatory action techniques, urban community planning, and community and youth development.
In 2008, Ross received the second annual
William Meinhofer Award for Faculty
Excellence from the Worcester UniverCity
Partnership. The award is given to college
or university faculty who enable students to
engage in community-based work that was
important to the award’s namesake,
William Meinhofer, who had served as
director of the Donelan Office of
Community-based Learning at College of
the Holy Cross in Worcester.
Ross co-authored the article “Transitioning from High School Service to College Service-Learning in a First-Year Seminar” with Associate Professor of Management Mary-Ellen Boyle in The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning (Volume 14, No. 1 (Fall 2007). This article analyzes the challenges encountered in a first-year service-learning course in which students had high expectations for community involvement and a commitment to social responsibility, yet significant difficulty connecting their service orientation to the intellectual inquiry expected of them at the college level. This conflict between “making a difference” and undertaking complementary academic work was evident in students’ reflections, and in our own. As a result of this case study and secondary research, it appears that introductory service-learning courses may need to be reconceptualized for the increasing numbers of students who come to college with prior service experiences and strong orientations toward social action.
Ross received a second year of funding as the Project Director from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security on the project Action Research to Prevent and Reduce Youth and Gang Violence in Worcester, MA with Ellen Foley and Greg Paskach (CDP/MA ’08). She was also awarded a 2007-2009 Learn & Serve America - Faculty Fellowship for Youth grant from Rhode Island Campus Compact and Massachusetts Campus Compact to support her development and growth as a leader and campus organizer around issues of youth development in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Ross’ proposal will allow her to continue her work with the HOPE Coalition as well as expand the issues of youth mental health to faculty and students on the Clark campus. The HOPE Coalition was awarded funds to conduct action research on the distribution of alcohol vendors and advertising to complement its work on tobacco.
Publications
Ross, L. and Downs, T. 2006. University-Community Partnerships to Promote Environmental Health and Justice in Worcester, Massachusetts. Scholarship in Action: Applied Research and Community Change HUD Office of University Partnerships.
Ross, L. 2006. Where Do We Belong? Urban Teens’ Struggle for Place and Voice. American Journal of Community Psychology. Vol. 37, Nos. 3/4.
Kilroy, S., Riepe, A., Dezan, R., and Ross, L. (accepted April 2006 for 2006, Volume 16) Youth Voice in Urban High School Transformation: We’re Talking… Is Anyone Listening? Children, Youth, and Environments.
DelPrete, T. and L. Ross. 2003. Blurring boundaries: The promise and challenge of a district-community action plan for systemic high school change in Worcester, MA. New Directors for Youth Development. Spring: 89-106.
Ford, R., L. Ross, and M. Coleman. 2001. Neighborhood networks in Worcester: Partnerships that work. In M. Mandell (Ed.) Getting Results through Collaboration: Networks and Network Structures for Public Policy and Management, p. 223-230. Quorum Books, Connecticut.
Ross, L. and M. Coleman. 2000. Urban Community Action Planning Inspires Teenagers to Transform their Community and their Identity. Journal of Community Practice. 7:2 (29-45).
Ross, L. and M. Coleman. 2000. Urban Youth as Community Planners and Leaders: Exploring their Potential with Urban Community Action Planning for Teenagers. Participation Learning and Action. 38:(25-28)
Rocheleau, D. and L. Ross. 1995. Trees as Tools, Trees as Text: Struggles over Resources in Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic. Antipode. 27(4): 407-428.
Grants
Laurie Ross received a $30,000 grant from State of Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety to be the Local Action Research Partner for the City of Worcester’s Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative Youth Violence Reduction grant.
She also received a $25,000 grant from Common Pathways/Umass Memorial Healthcare and a $10,000 grant from The Medical Foundation of Boston for my work with the HOPE Coalition. These grants go to a youth-led action research project to reduce tobacco advertising in the City of Worcester.
Presentations
The Challenge of Engagement, the 3rd annual University-Community Partnership Conference July 12-14. Overcoming the Challenges and Harnessing the Benefits of University-Community Collaboration: Addressing Environmental Justice in Worcester, Massachusett’s Built Environment with Tim Downs, Kate Lowe, Jen Bowen, Peggy Middaugh (REC), and Denise Calderwood (Worcester Youth Center).
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