at 35		From nontraditional student status to the PhD to U-M faculty Making It All the Way By Sarah Beldo
History and Mission of the CEW This is the last of several articles in the 2000 volume of Michigan Today on the U-M Center for the Education of Women, founded in 1964 through the joint efforts of alumnae and the administration. (See Spring 2000 issue.) For more information about the Center, write to CEW at 330 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor, MI, 48104; phone (734) 998-7080, or visit the Website at http://www.umich.edu/~cew/welcome.html

In 1978, Sandra Graham-Bermann was a 27-year-old single mother of two enrolled in Michigan's Undergraduate Honors Program, planning to study psychology. With her family to care for, the road to academia seemed paved with potholes. But she had always dreamed of journeying exactly where she is today. First in her family to attend college, she now holds the post of associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Women's Studies Program.

Photo by Paul Jaronski, U-M Photo Services Graham-Bermann

"As a single parent, I was looking everywhere for sources of support," Graham-Bermann recalls. What she found was the Center for the Education of Women (CEW), the campus resource for nontraditional female students. The CEW, Graham-Bermann says, "gave me encouragement, partly financially, but also professionally. It gave me professional recognition and promoted the idea of being a scholar. It helped me realize I could be a professor. Before you get there, you have to be able to imagine yourself there."

After graduating from the Honors Psychology program, Graham-Bermann coded data for several years, then enrolled in U-M's graduate program in personality and clinical psychology. She received her PhD in 1987 and focused on clinical psychology, working particularly with children.

In earlier research, she had uncovered a surprisingly large number of families who faced domestic and sibling violence. Curious to discover more about the inner lives of children in such families, she began to study the effects of violence on children-induding child abuse, domestic violence, sibling violence, media violence and connnuriity violence.

In a 1996 study, Graham-Bermann found that "children in families of domestic violence may be further damaged and harmed" if they receive no structured support and continue to be exposed to "negative role and relational models."

For families who face violence, Graham-Bermann believes firmly in intervention. In 1992, she developed an innovative intervention program called "Kids' Club" at U-M's Safe House, which "helps children learn to cope with stressful events in families, identify feelings, safety strategies and improve self-esteem." The program is run in five cities, and Graham-Bermann travels the country teaching those who work with children how to address three primary questions: What do kids know about violence? What can you do about violence? How do you handle feelings about violence?

Despite a career that gazes at a sadder face of America's families, Graham-Bermann insists that she finds her studies uplifting. "When you just study problems, you can learn a lot about people's strengths. The children are incredible. A lot of them manage lives, though they struggle," she says.

She cites social groups, strong relationships with other adults and religious activity as some examples of how abused children pull through.

Other CEW scholars who    went on to get their doctorates    and join the U-M faculty

Ruby Beale, adjunct professor, School of Business Administration, lecturer in Department of Psychology, assistant to the dean, LS&A. Jacqueline Mattis, assistant professor, Departments of Psychology and Women's Studies. Deborah Gumucio, associate professor, Cell and Developmental Biology, Medical School Lorraine Gutierrez, associate professor, School of Social Work and Department of Psychology. Susan Juster, associate professor, Department of History. Bonnie Hagerty, associate professor, School of Nursing. Cleopatra Caldwell, assistant professor, Health Behavior and Health Education Department, School of Public Health. Sylvia Hacker, associate professor emerita, Schools of Nursing and Public Health.)

As part of her pursuit for additional attention for children's concerns, Graham-Bermann serves as a research consultant to the US Department of Justice. She believes that Washington, despite its earnest buzz about family values, "could and should be accomplishing much more on behalf of children's rights."

She ardently recommends the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which deals with violence, war and the effects of war. (See "Children of War" in Summer 2000 MT.)

"The government should pour money into prevention of children's harm, rather than into reaction," Graham-Bermann says. "Children have the worst medical care in the world. We need to care for all children, including the poorest and the youngest." Additionally, she says, funds should be directed toward Head Start and other educational programs that reach troubled children at a young I age, and toward community interventions similar to the ones she coordinates.

True to the spirit that brought her to her post, Graham-Bermann enjoys providing students with a positive role model akin to those she once sought and received. She has taught undergraduate courses on marriage and aging and graduate courses on child therapy and gender's role in clinical therapy. "Teaching comes easy to me" Graham-Bermann says. "Writing is what's hard. I enjoy mentoring graduate students and young professionals."

From where she stands now, Graham-Bermann has only grateful praise for the mentorship of the CEW. "Some people feel that we've already had the rules, people have benefited, and now the problems have gone away. This is not true. Women make less money, they are harassed and discouraged," she notes. "Additionally, women have the primary responsibility for family and the home. It was affirming to have the CEW around, which understands these particular needs."