Dr. Terri Orbuch earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Iowa. She is a professor of sociology at Oakland University and a research professor at University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research. She has published several books and articles on marriage, divorce, parent-child relationships, accounts and account-making, and the effects of divorce on children. Dr. Orbuch appears regularly on radio, TV, Huffington Post, and in magazines/newspapers across the country as “The Love Doctor.” She is the author of, “5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great” (Random House) and “Finding Love Again: 6 Simple Steps to a New and Happy Relationship” (Sourcebooks).
Dr. Edna Brown
Dr. Edna Brown is a graduate of the Joint Doctoral Program for Social Work and Developmental Psychology at the University of Michigan. She completed two years as a postdoctoral fellow with Developmental Psychology and a Research Fellowship at ISR and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. Her research examines health and well being, social relations and intergenerational relationships of adults and the elderly. Her current work focuses on the impact of stressful life transitions on health during middle and later adulthood. Specifically, how social (gender, socioeconomic status) and cultural (race, ethnicity, and religion) contexts affect coping and health during normative and non normative life transitions (marriage, divorce).
Dr. Kira Birditt
Dr. Birditt is a Research Assistant Professor in the Life Course Development Program. Her research focuses on: 1) how people react to interpersonal problems and whether those reactions vary across the lifespan, and 2) the circumstances under which positive and negative aspects of relationships are associated with physical and psychological well-being. She examines these issues in marriage, the parent child tie, and in daily interactions. She recently completed a five year K99/R00 grant from NIA in which she received training in biological systems and collected data regarding daily interpersonal problems and biological indicators of stress (Daily Health, Stress, and Relationships Study).
Dr. Toni Antonucci
Dr. Antonucci is the Elizabeth M. Douvan Collegiate Professor of Psychology, Program Director and Research Professor in the Life Course Development Program at the Institute for Social Research and Associate Vice President for Research, all at the University of Michigan. Dr. Antonucci’s research focuses on social relations and health across the life span, including the family, life span and life course development, multigenerational relations, adult development and aging, and comparative studies of social relations and health in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Japan. She is particularly interested in how social relations optimize or jeopardize an individual’s ability to face life’s challenges.
