Gina McGovern
Assistant Professor
Human Development and Family Studies
Central Michigan University
Dr. McGovern is an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Central Michigan University. She studies the effective practices of adults who work with youth, especially those that support the development of youth’s social-emotional skills and ethnic-racial identity. She is interested in how adults attend to their own SEL and identity development, especially as they and the youth they work with confront systemic inequities due to racism and xenophobia. Her research is applied and has led to training curriculum that facilitates the implementation of effective practices in youth-serving organizations. Prior to joining the faculty at Central Michigan University, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology. She received her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds a master’s degree in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in professional studies in middle school mathematics from the George Washington University, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Mary Washington College. Her applied experience includes managing product development, performance reporting, and research initiatives at the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality and serving for five years as a middle school math teacher.