Teens Need Sleep
an organization aimed at addressing the sleep deprivation epidemic among teenagers
Advisors
Dr. Mary Carskadon, Brown University
Mary A. Carskadon received a BA in psychology from Gettysburg College (1969) and is a distinguished alumna of that institution. She holds a doctorate with distinction in neuro- and biobehavioral sciences from Stanford University (1979), earned under the mentorship of William C. Dement, MD, PhD.
Carskadon’s current research includes an evaluation of how sleep and circadian timing influence smell, taste, food choices, and food consumption in overweight and normal weight teens and development of “smart lighting” to improve academic outcomes in secondary school students. Proposed new projects seek to (1) measure protein expression and DNA modification in neurally-derived exosomes in a small case/control study of depressed mood in short sleepers; (2) measure gene expression, methylation, and genotype with observational phenotyping and experimental interventions in young adults and test genes identified in a model organism, C. elegans; and (3) measure sleep and next-day cognitive effects of serial nights of alcohol use in adults.
Carskadon has written many scientific papers, and she has received a number of honors, including an honorary doctor of sciences degree from Gettysburg College, Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Sleep Foundation, Outstanding Educator and Distinguished Scientist Awards of the Sleep Research Society. She is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Amy Wolfson, Loyola University Maryland
Amy R. Wolfson, Professor of Psychology, Loyola University Maryland, has been published in numerous prestigious peer-reviewed journals and is the author of two books, The Woman’s Book of Sleep: A Complete Resource Guide and The Oxford Handbook of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Sleep and Behavior. Wolfson was awarded a six-year $1.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2005 for her Young Adolescent Sleep-Smart Pacesetter Program, a longitudinal study of urban, middle school students' sleep patterns and hygiene, behavioral well-being, and academic performance. As a co-editor, she recently completed a special issue for Sleep Health on Sleep Science and Policy: A Focus on School Start Times (October 2017) and her current research is addressing the implications of physical health habits, such as caffeine consumption, on adolescents’ sleep, as well as examining implications of the transition from high school to college on sleep timing, duration, and regularity. She teaches largely undergraduate courses on sleep and circadian rhythms, gender and leadership, mental health, health psychology, and women's
studies. Wolfson came to Loyola in 2014, serving as the Vice President of Academic Affairs until 2017. Previously, she was on the faculty at the College of the Holy Cross, an exclusively undergraduate liberal arts college, where she chaired the psychology department and served as associate dean of the faculty from 2010-2014. Currently, she serves on the board of trustees for Start School Later.