College of Education and Human Development

Fred Bemak remembers all the hugs and tears. They inevitably come, he said, when his Counselors Without Borders team is on location helping hundreds—sometimes thousands—of people healing from the emotional scars of a disaster. “It’s the person who is grabbing and hugging you, thanking you for being there,” the George Mason University professor said. “That’s huge.” For 13 years Counselors Without Borders has traveled the world into areas devastated by floods, wildfires and storms, offering culturally responsive humanitarian counseling in post-disaster situations. Read more...

Atif Qarni, who is Virginia’s 19th Secretary of Education and the first appointed to the Cabinet straight out of a K-through-12 classroom, graduated from George Mason University in 2009 with a master’s degree in history and having participated in the teaching licensure program through the College of Education and Human Development. Read more...

One student questioned her father about his conservative views on gay rights. Another approached a friend from camp about their divergent opinions on President Trump. And a third pressed his cousin on his ardent support for guns. In a climate of political and social divisiveness, when social media often doubles as an echo chamber, educators issued a challenge to 12th-graders at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria that seemed, at once, simple and extraordinary — find someone different from themselves, with whom they disagree on a foundational issue, and talk. Read more...

The 2018 Winter Olympics have officially begun in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and top athletes from around the world are currently competing in 15 events over more than two weeks. But there’s more than just sport at this worldwide mega event—there’s also diplomacy. Read more...

The Mason Arts Research Center does not have a physical structure at George Mason University. But its co-directors want to make it a highly visible hub of research into how arts participation affects child development. It will do so with a two-year, $150,000 renewable grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the vision of co-directors Thalia Goldstein, assistant professor of applied developmental psychology; Adam Winsler, professor of applied developmental psychology; and Kim Sheridan, associate professor of educational psychology. Read more...

Fred Bemak, a professor and academic program coordinator of George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development counseling and development program, is a recipient of a 2018 Oustanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). Bemak, in the College of Education and Human Development, is one of 12 recipients selected from 83 nominees, and the 21st George Mason recipient since the award’s inception in 1987. Read more...

If you’re an enormous social media company looking to adapt some of your technology for younger children, you want to make sure you’re creating a fun user experience—but also a safe one. That’s what Facebook was recently looking to do. While preparing to put together what eventually became Messenger Kids, which launched in late 2017, the company consulted with experts on children and media. One of those experts was Kevin Clark, CEHD professor and director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity. Read more...

As the scope of potential short- and long-term damage from brain injuries in football becomes clearer every day, the mad scramble is on to try to address the crisis, which threatens the very existence of the sport. And while the leading chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, research at Boston University has made the most headlines, two scientists at George Mason University have been working on a potentially groundbreaking diagnostic tool that could change the way we test for and treat brain injury across the sports world and beyond. Read more...

Until recently, there was no library at Montrose Alternative Learning Center, a school for students in grades K-10 with behavioral challenges, academic difficulties, or who would fit best in a less traditional learning environment. And it had been that way for quite a while. Read more...

Panel discussion highlights new minor in Sport and Conflict Resolution and addresses the question of athletes as activists. The role that athletes play in conflict resolution was addressed during a two-hour forum earlier this month at Merten Hall on the Fairfax Campus. Read more...