Lehigh to lead $9.6M national research center for serious behavior...(sion delinquency and personality concern...),Health

Dr. Steve Evans, the Alvin V. Baird Jr. Centennial Chair of Psychology at James Madison University's Alvin Baird Attention & Learning Disabilities Center, and Dr. Tim Lewis, professor and associate dean for research, development and graduate studies at the University of Missouri, will serve as Co-PIs on the grant.

"Developing effective school-based interventions for adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders is a challenging task," says Evans. "The talented group of nationally recognized experts we have assembled are well-suited to make meaningful advances in work that will make an important difference in the lives of adolescents and their families."

The team of researchers involved with the grant is distinguished by its work in the fields of special education, clinical psychology, developmental psychology, racial and ethnic diversity, education and mental health policy, and statistical analysis. Along with Kern, Evans and Lewis, they include:

• Dr. Mark Weist, the University of Maryland's Center for School Mental Health,
• Dr. Deborah Kamps, the University of Kansas' Juniper Gardens Children's Project,
• Dr. Terry Scott, the University of Louisville, and
• Dr. Carl Paternite, Miami University

For the first two years of the five year grant, the impact of a wide range of interventions on small groups of secondary-level students who have serious behavioral disorders will be studied. During years three through five, the most successful of those interventions will then be packaged and offered to 500 students representing 40 high schools in six states.

Interventions are ways in which problems caused by a student's disorder can effectively be minimized. Traditionally, it involves reducing inappropriate behavior while reinforcing the positive and productive actions of students, both in and
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