Mary E. Walsh

professor, urban education, Boston College

Mary E. Walsh, Ph.D., is the Kearn's Professor of Urban Education and Innovative Leadership at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. She also directs the Boston College Center for Child, Family, and Community Partnerships which joins the resources of the schools of education, law, social work, nursing and management in community collaborations that enhance the academic and healthy development of youth. Prior to coming to Boston College, she was director of behavioral sciences in the department of family and community medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Walsh has been a leading collaborator in "Boston Connects" a school-community-university partnership directed at addressing non-academic barriers to learning and promoting healthy development in school children. The YMCA of Greater Boston serves as the lead community agency in this effort. With support from the New Balance Foundation, the Boston Connects program has recently initiated the provision of regular health education to over 3300 children in school and after-school settings. Dr. Walsh has published and presented widely in the area of school-community supports for schoolchildren and their families. Her two most recent books are *Children, Health and Learning* and *Meeting at the Hyphen: Schools-Universities-Communities-Professions in Collaboration for Student Achievement and Well-Being* (co-authored with M. Brabeck). She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical-developmental psychology from Clark University.