Family Impact Seminars

FAMILY IMPACT SEMINARS

About Family Impact Seminars
Since 1992 the Georgetown Public Policy Institute has sponsored a series of community seminars, known as the D.C. Family Impact Seminars. This series is affiliated with the national Family Impact Seminar program, with headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. In the fall of 2002 CROCUS assumed responsibility for the D.C. Family Impact Seminars. The purpose of these seminars is to highlight public policy controversies involving children, especially children at risk, with attention to national, state, and local policy choices and their implications for children and families in the District of Columbia and elsewhere.

Most Recent Family Impact Seminar

Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?

Georgetown University sponsored a family policy forum on February 23, 2006, on Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?

This event, co-sponsored by the Children's Digital Media Center and the Center for Research on Children in the United States, took place at the Barbara Jordan Conference Center at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 1330 G Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C.

Over the past four decades, our nation's childhood obesity rate has tripled, resulting in a national health crisis. This forum brings together a National Academy of Sciences panel of experts who examined how marketing practices are contributing to childhood obesity. We will discuss what families and policy makers can do to protect children from advertising and marketing practices that promote unhealthy diets as well as explore how those same techniques can lead to healthier diets.

Panelists include J. Michael McGinnis, M.D., M.P.P., the Chair of our report and a Senior Scholar at the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies; Robert Post, Ph.D., J.D., and the Davies Professor of Law at Yale Law School; Ellen A. Wartella, Ph.D., and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of California Riverside; and Sandra L. Calvert, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, and Director of the Children's Digital Media Center.

The forum is supported by gifts from the Stuart Family Foundation and by a grant from the Georgetown University Graduate School.

Past D.C. Family Impact Seminars

Children of Prisoners: Background Briefing Report
Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Panel Included:

Dr. Dorothy Browne
Senior Scientist, Drug Abuse Research Program
Director, Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Morgan State University

Dr. Rev. Wilson Goode, Sr.
Senior Advisor, Faith Based Initiatives for Public/ Private Ventures
Director, Amachi Mentoring Program

Dr. William Muth
Education Administrator, Federal Bureau of Prisons

Moderated by
Dr. William Gormley
University Professor, Georgetown University

Currently there are more than 2 million children of prisoners nationwide.
Come learn from leading experts why this population is so at-risk
and strategies policymakers are considering to address their unique needs.

Parental Involvement in Juvenile Justice: Prospects and Possibilities
November 8, 2004

Panel Included:
Andrew K. Block, Jr., Legal Director, Just Children Program, Legal Aid Justice Center
Howard Davidson, Director, American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law
The Honorable Judge Lee Satterfield, Presiding Judge, Washington, DC Family Court
Jennifer Woolard, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University, Moderator

Briefing Report: Parental Involvement in Juvenile Justice: Prospects and Possibilities
By: Samantha Harvell, Belen Rodas, Leah Hendey
*Harvell, Rodas and Hendey are CROCUS fellows and candidates for the M.P.P. degree at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute

Child Advocacy in Hard Times
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Georgetown University Law Center, Gewirz Student Center, 12th Floor, 120 F Street, NW

Panel Included:
Tamara Copeland, President, Voices for America’s Children
Helen Cymrot, CROCUS Fellow, Georgetown University
William T. Gormley, Jr., University Professor, Georgetown University
Suzanne C. Johnson, President, Voices for Virginia’s Children and Youth
Cecilia Zalkind, Executive Director, Association for Children of New Jersey
Peter Edelman, Professor of Law, Georgetown University, Moderator

Briefing Report: Child Advocacy in Hard Times by Ria Sengupta and Lindsay Warner
Note: Sengupta and Warner are CROCUS fellows and candidates for the M.P.P. degree at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

Federal Education Policies and Students with Special Needs: Challenges and Opportunities for Children in the District
April 8, 2003
Georgetown University Law Center, Gewirz Student Center, 12th Floor, 120 F Street, NW

Panel Included:
Anne Gay, Assistant Superintendent of the Division of Special Education, DCPS
Megan Blamble, JD. Family Advocacy Clinic Graduate Fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center
Michelle Hawkins. Parent Coordinator for Family Support Project at the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute
Toby Long, PhD, PT. Associate Director for Training of the Georgetown University Child Development Center, Director, Division of Physical Therapy and Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Deborah Phillips, Chair and Professor, Department of Psychology, Georgetown, Moderator

Topic of Discussion:
Federal Eduation Policies and Students with Special Needs: Challenges and Opportunities for the District of Columbia
by Laura Schiebelhut and Shantay Prince.
Note: Schiebelhut and Prince are CROCUS fellows and candidates for the M.P.P. degree at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute

DC FAMILY COURT: How is it Working?
January 8, 2003
Georgetown University Law Center, Gewirz Student Center, 12th Floor, 120 F Street, NW

Panel Included:
Hon. Lee Satterfield, Presiding Judge, DC Family Court
The Hon. Cindy Lederman, Administrative Judge, Miami/Dade County Juvenile Court
Wally Mlyniec, Professor of Law, Georgetown University
Cassie Bevan, Senior Policy Analyst to Congresesman Tom Delay (R-RX)
William Gormley, Professor of Public Policy, Georgetown University

Topic of Discussion:
DC FAMILY COURT: How is it Working? by Brittany Dawson and Alexis Lester
Note: Dawson and Lester are CROCUS fellows and candidates for the M.P.P. degree at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute

(all reports require Adobe Acrobat Reader)