We are delighted to welcome Jennifer Murray Connell as a senior project specialist here at the Child Study Center!
Jenn splits her time between two responsibilities: first as a clinician in the Penn State Psychological Clinic of the Psychology Department, and second as a senior project specialist at the Child Study Center. A Penn State alumna, she received her Master of Social Work from the University of South Carolina in 1999, and has been a licensed clinical social worker since 2004. Jenn was a coordinator of social workers and school counselors at Achievement First Connecticut from 2010 to 2017, as well as a social worker at Amistad Academy Elementary School from 2008 to 2017. Jenn worked as a clinical instructor of social work at the Yale Child Study Center from 1999 to 2008, providing community and home-based services to children and families.
Jenn is currently providing clinical and consultative services to children, youth, and adults at the Penn State Psychological Clinic. As part of her CSC responsibilities, she works with Dr. Karen Bierman on the GoPals program, which is focused on developing parent and child intervention to promote school readiness and social emotional development. Specifically, the GoPals program consists of 18 units of preschool programming designed for weekly delivery, refined through an iterative process involving three field tests with child care centers and parents. This program is trademark entitled to registration and moving forward. This fall, the GoPals program research group is partnering with two large elementary schools, one rural (Lewistown) and one small urban (Altoona) to scale up the GoPals Kindergarten Club, and plans to work with 200 families. Jenn also works on the CSC Innovation Hub, the idea behind which is to identify an area in which a significant gap has emerged between typical U.S. practice and policy and emerging research findings in an area of central CSC emphasis. The focus of the innovation hub for the next three years is early childhood education, particularly the topic of parent engagement and intervention.
Please join us in welcoming Jenn to the CSC!