Judi Casey, M.S.W.
Principal Investigator/ Director

Judi Casey is currently the Principal Investigator and Director of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. She was hired as the Director of the Network in September 2005. Prior to the Network, she worked at the Boston College Center for Work & Family in various roles for the past 15 years. She was the Director of the New England Work & Family Association (NEWFA), conducted corporate research and custom analyses for the Center’s Standards of Excellence in Work/Life Integration project and managed the Work/Life Certificate Program. Judi is well-known for her ability to bridge the world of the corporate practitioner with research about the work/life field. Judi is the author, with Jacquelyn James of “Business or Busyness: Strategies for Managing Workload” and with Peggy Chase, of “Creating a Culture of Flexibility: What it is, Why it Matters, How to Make it Work,” from the Center’s 2004 Executive Briefing Series. She has written numerous other articles on work/life topics and is a frequent speaker at local and national conferences. Judi has a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and a MSW from Boston University.

Karen Corday received her B.A. from Smith College and her MSLIS from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. Previously, she worked as a Project Manager for Pearson Custom Publishing and as a Preservation Assistant for Harvard University Library's Weissman Preservation Center, where she worked on the Open Collection Program's Women Working project. Her primary responsibilities include managing the Network’s content and editing the Network News.

Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ph.D.
Network Founder and Advisor

Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Center on Aging & Work/Workplace Flexibility at Boston College and an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at BC. She received her B.A. from Tufts University, M.S.P. from Boston College, and Ph.D. from Boston University.
Dr. Pitt-Catsouphes brings extensive expertise in the area of organizational studies to the Center on Aging & Work. She has conducted studies about workplace culture, supervisor-employee relationships, and the adoption of innovative employee policies and programs by small, medium and large organizations. She is currently the Co-Principal Investigator of the National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development and the Study of Aging and Work in Industry Sectors, both of which are being conducted by the Center on Aging & Work.

From 1990-1999, Dr. Pitt-Catsouphes conducted research at the Center for Work & Family at Boston College. In 1997, she founded the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. The Network provides resources about working families to business leaders and state legislators as well as to academics around the world. She continues to be the Principal Investigator of the Network.

Dr. Pitt-Catsouphes was a Co-Principal Investigator of the study, “Understanding the First Job: Nurturing Families,” also funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This study gathered in-depth information about work, family, school, and community experiences from the parents and middle school-age children in 199 families.

She is currently a Research Fellow of the Work & Family Roundtable, a corporate membership group organized by the Boston College Center for Work & Family. Her articles have been published in a number of scholarly and practitioner journals. Dr. Pitt-Catsouphes was a founding co-editor for the international journal, Community, Work and Family, and co-edited a special issue of the ANNALS of Political and Social Sciences: The Evolving World of Work and Family: New Stakeholders, New Voices. Dr. Pitt-Catsouphes is the lead co-editor of The Work-Family Handbook: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives and Approaches to Research, scheduled for publication by Erlbaum Publishers in 2005.

Stephen Sweet, Ph.D.
Teaching Resources Specialist

Stephen Sweet is an assistant professor of sociology at Ithaca College and was formerly the associate director of the Cornell Work and Family Careers Institute. His studies on work and family adopt a life course perspective, and have appeared in a variety of publications, including Family Relations, New Directions in Life Course Research, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Innovative Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, and Community, Work, and Family. His books, College and Society: An Introduction to the Sociological Imagination and Data Analysis with SPSS: A First Course in Applied Statistics have been extensively adopted in sociology courses. He co-edited (with Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes and Ellen Ernst Kossek), the Work and Family Handbook: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Methods and Approaches, and Teaching Work and Family: Strategies, Activities, and Syllabi. He is currently completing the book Changing Contours of Work (with Peter Meiksins) anticipated to be published by Pine Forge Press in 2007, as well as a series of articles on how couples manage job insecurity and career transitions across the life course.

Suzan Lewis, Ph.D.
Global Perspective Consultant

Sue Lewis is Professor of Organisational Psychology at Middlesex University Business School, London. Her research focuses on work-personal life issues and workplace practice, culture and change in different workplace and social policy contexts. She co-ordinated an EU study of the young people’s orientation to future reconciliation of work and family life (1996-8), the recently completed EU Framework Five project, Gender, Parenthood and the Changing European Workplace (Transitions) (2003-6) and also, with Rhona Rapoport, a Ford Foundation funded eight country study Looking Backwards to Go Forwards. The Integration of Work and Personal Life. ( 2002-5). Her cross national publications include Brannen, J, Lewis, S, Nilsen, A and Smithson, J (2002) Young Europeans, Work and Family Life: Futures in Transition, London: Routledge and Gambles, R. Lewis, S and Rapoport, R (2006) The Myth of Work-Life Balance. The Challenge of our Time for Men, Women and Societies . Other recent publications include Lewis, S and Cooper, C 2005 Work-Life Integration. Case Studies of Organisational Change. She is a founding editor of the international journal Community, Work and Family.

Julie Schwartz Weber, J.D.
Policy Specialist

Julie Schwartz Weber is the Policy Specialist for the Alfred P. Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College, the premier online destination for work and family information.  She oversees the development of the policy resources at the Sloan Network, including the work-family policy briefs, the bills and statutes database, and the new mini-briefs.  She also conducts outreach to state legislators, their staff, advocacy organizations, and business groups across the country.  As the Policy Specialist, Julie has presented to a variety of groups and conferences, including the New Hampshire First Annual Legislative and Business Work-Family Summit, the Women’s Legislative Lobby, and the New Hampshire Women’s Lobby.  Last summer, she was the keynote speaker at the First National Conference on Child and Family Programs and Policy.  Julie is also a regular contributor to the Sloan Network’s Work-Family Blog.  Before working as the Policy Specialist at the Sloan Network, Julie worked as an employment and health care attorney.  She graduated from Columbia University, Cum Laude, and from Boston College Law School, where she served as President of the Law Students Association and was awarded the Susan Grant Desmarais Award for Public Service and Leadership.  She is also a trained mediator.

Jennifer Lawless

Graphic Designer/Communications Specialist

Jennifer Lawless is the Web Administrator for the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Jenn is a website specialist with a background in visual arts who has spent the majority of her career designing, developing and maintaining multifaceted websites.

She began her career as a techincal illustrator and graphic designer for The MITRE Corporation in Bedford, MA. Prior to joining the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, she produced medical websites and created marketing collateral for HealthBanks, Inc. of Burlington, MA. Jenn studied illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and graduated Cum Laude from Framingham State College with a BFA in Studio Art.
 

Lauren Leonard

Administrative Assistant

Lauren Leonard is the Administrative Assistant for the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Lauren has a background in Higher Education Administration, including roles in budget management, research, event planning, and web management.  Additionally, Lauren is an administrator at the Center on Aging & Work/ Workplace Flexibility at Boston College.

Prior to joining the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, Lauren was the Coordinator for the Child Development Institute at Sarah Lawrence College conducting research on the status of play in Kindergarten classrooms. Lauren graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in psychology and education.