measures of accountability has opened the system to various forms of critical analysis, meticulous examination and scrutiny (Black, 2008; Smith, Yosso, & Solórzano, 2007). As a result of this increased emphasis on accountability, educational policy and mental health, researchers have begun to stress educational innovation for improving the academic outcomes for American students. This focus was...

Studies examining friendships among Mexican-American adolescents have largely focused on their potentially negative influence. The current study examined the extent to which deviant and achievement-oriented friend affiliations are associated with Mexican-American adolescents' school adjustment and also tested whether support from friends and parents moderates these associations. High school stu...

A major study initiative, “New Models of Dental Education,” funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, convened three panels of distinguished experts to examine issues related to the dental curriculum. This report is from Panel 2, held December 3–4, 2006, on the subject of curriculum and clinical training in oral health for physicians and dentists. Staffing the panel were Allan J. Formicola (Th...

This study examines how religious activity is associated with risk behaviors, concurrently and developmentally among urban African American adolescents. Seven hundred and five African American youths were interviewed annually during high school. Retention rates for the study exceeded 90%. Frequency of religious activity, sexual intercourse, and alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use were assesse...

BACKGROUND This study compares the aerobic fitness status of a sample of rural American and Russian children, and examines these findings in light of their out of school physical activity participation. METHODS Ten and eleven year old (N = 415) children from both countries completed a 15 m Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) fitness test, and following the test, the child...

CONTEXT Although concerns continue to be raised about the diversity of the US physician workforce, there has never been a nationwide survey of both the sex and underrepresented minority (URM) composition of medical school admission committees. OBJECTIVE To document US medical school admission committee membership in several demographic domains, including sex and URM (African American, Mexican...

We developed a 9-week after-school, small group, activities-based intervention focused on enhancing youth's abilities to imagine themselves as successful adults and connecting these future imagines to current school involvement. We describe and evaluate this programme comparing three cohorts of urban African American middle school students (n=62 experimental, n=146 control), controlling for sex...

The construct of school engagement has attracted growing interest as a way to ameliorate the decline in academic achievement and increase in dropout rates. The current study tested the fit of a second-order multidimensional factor model of school engagement, using large-scale representative data on 1103 students in middle school. In order to make valid model comparisons by group, we evaluated t...

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION • Board Certification: Pediatric Infectious Disease, American Board of Pediatrics (2013) • MPH, Harvard School of Public Health , Clinical Effectiveness (2013) • Board Certification, Pediatric Infectious Diseases , American Board of Pediatrics (2013) • Fellowship: Boston Children's Hospital (2013) MA • Board Certification: Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics (2009) •...