Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
"Research & Practice of Bully Prevention: Past, Present, and Future"

Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D. is a Professor of Child Development and Associate Chair in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is a University Scholar and has fellow status in Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association.

She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University in 1997. She has conducted research on bullying for 18 years and more recently has examined correlates of sexual harassment, dating violence, and homophobic teasing. As a result, she presents regularly at regional, national, and international conferences and is author on over 90 professional publications.

She is co-editor of four published books including Bullying in North American Schools: A Social-Ecological Perspective on Prevention and Intervention and International Handbook of Bullying published by Routledge. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. She has presented thousands of workshops and in-service training seminars for teachers, administrators, counselors, and social workers across the U.S.

Her research focuses on translating empirical findings into prevention and intervention programming. She is currently funded by the CDC and is conducting a randomized clinical trial of a bullying prevention program in 36 middle schools. She authored a 2011 White House Brief on bullying among LGBTQ youth and attended the White House Conference. She is also funded by National Science Foundation to develop better methods to assess bullying among adolescents.

Dr. Espelage has appeared on many television news and talk shows, including The Today Show, CNN, CBS Evening News, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Anderson; she has been quoted in the national print press, including Time Magazine, USA Today, and People magazine.



Yolanda C. Padilla, Ph.D., LMSW-AP
The University of Texas at Austin
"Latino Children Across the Life Course in the Context of Social Disparities: Identifying Points for Policy Intervention"

Yolanda C. Padilla, PhD, LMSW-AP is Professor of Social Work and Women’s Studies and  Faculty Research Associate of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. A graduate of the University of Michigan’s joint program in social work and sociology, she studied in the Research and Training Program on Poverty and Public Policy. Dr. Padilla is a member of the National Commission on Paternal Involvement in Pregnancy Outcomes of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which is doing work on closing the gap in the large U.S. racial disparities in birth outcomes. She is a member of the Latino Research and Policy Alliance, a group of Latino scholars focusing on bringing a Latino perspective to research and policy. Dr. Padilla served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Social Work Education from 2006 to 2009. In 2002, she received the SSWR Excellence in Research Award for Best Scholarly Contribution Published.

Dr. Padilla’s research is in racial and ethnic disparities in health and well-being, with a focus on the social determinates of health, including poverty and immigration, and the implications for the Latino population. Dr. Padilla was principal investigator of a study on the impact of immigration and poverty on Mexican American child health and well-being funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She has published widely including in the Social Science Quarterly, Social Service Review, Maternal and Child Health Journal, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Demographic Research, Social Forces, Social Work, and Journal of Social Service Research.