Faculty Bio

Name: Aleta Lynn Meyer

Titles/Occupation: Assistant Professor of Psychology and Clinical Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health

Address:
Room 104
Franklin Street Gym

Phone: 804-828-0015
Fax: 804-827-1511
Email: ameyer@saturn.vcu.edu

Current Research and Professional Activities:
Dr. Meyer has 16 years experience collaboratively designing, implementing, evaluating, and replicating effective health promotion and prevention programs for early adolescents. The programs she has helped design focus on violence prevention, depression prevention, and cancer prevention in both rural and urban settings. One of these programs, Responding In Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP) was recently designated by the US Department of Education as a Promising Program. She has been Assistant Professor of Psychology at VCU since 1994 and became an Assistant Clinical Professor of Prevention Medicine and Community Health in 2001. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a multi-site violence prevention project funded by the CDC. In that project, the violence prevention program she helped develop, RIPP, has been expanded as the basis for the student component of a universal program for changing school climate. She is also Co-Principal Investigator on a translational research grant from NICHD to identify essential skills for violence prevention. She is the Action Research Specialist for the VCU Center for Youth Violence Prevention and Associate Director of the Center for the Promotion of Positive Youth Development. Her new area of interest involves the integration of primary prevention programs and outdoor adventure education.

Selected Publications / Books:

Meyer, A., Miller, S., & Herman, M. (1994). Balancing the priorities of evaluation with the priorities of the setting: A focus on positive youth development programs in school settings. Journal of Primary Prevention, 12 (4), 95-114.

Meyer, A., & Lausell, L. (1996). The value of including a "Higher Power" in efforts to prevent violence and promote optimal outcomes during adolescence. In B. Hampton, P. Jenkins, & T. Gullotta (Eds.), Preventing violence in America (pp. 115-132). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Meyer, A., & Northup, W. (1997). What is violence prevention, anyway? Educational Leadership, May, 3 1-33.

Meyer, A., & Farrell, A. (1998). Social skills training to promote resilience in urban sixth grade students: One product of an action research strategy. Education and Treatment of Children, 21 (4), 461-488.

Meyer, A. (1999). The subjective impressions of sixth grade urban adolescents concerning their ability to achieve personal goals. Journal of Primary Prevention, 19 (4), 315-349.

Meyer, A., Farrell, A, Northup, W., Kung, E, & Plybon, L. (2000). Promoting non-violence in early adolescence. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.

Meyer, A., Nicholson, R., Danish, S., Fries, E., & Polk, V. (2000). A model to measure program integrity of peer-led health promotion programs in rural middle schools: Assessing the implementation of Goals for Health. Journal Educational and Psychological Consultation, 11 (2), 223-252.

Meyer, A. (in press). The Promotion of Positive Risk-Taking in Adolescence. Encyclopedia of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion.Farrell, A. D., Meyer, A. L., Kung, E. M., & Sullivan, T. N. (2001). Development and evaluation of school-based violence prevention programs. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30 (2), 207-220

Farrell, A., Meyer, A., & White, K. (2001). Evaluation of Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP): A school-based prevention program for reducing violence among urban adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30 (4), 451-463.

Farrell, A., Ampy, L., & Meyer, A. (1998). Identification and assessment of problematic interpersonal situations for urban adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. 27, 29 3-305.

Farrell, A., & Meyer, A. (1997). Effectiveness of a school-based prevention program for reducing violence among urban adolescents: Differential impact on girls and boys. American Journal of Public Health, 87 (6), 979-984.

Farrell, A., Meyer, A., & Dahlberg, L. (1996). Richmond Youth Against Violence: A schoolê-based program for urban adolescents. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12 (5), 13-21.

Rice, K., & Meyer, A. (1994). Preventing depression among young adolescents: Preliminary process results of a psycho-educational intervention program. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73. (4), 145-15 2.

Stanton, C., & Meyer, A. (1997). A comprehensive review of community-based approaches for the treatment of juvenile offenders. In T. Gullotta (Ed.) Delinquent Violent Youth: Theory and Interventions (pp. 205-229). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Courses Taught:
Epidemiology and Prevention of Intentional Injury (PMCH graduate course)
Adolescent Psychology (PSY undergraduate)
Program Evaluation and Research (PSY graduate)

Education:
Ph.D. - 1994, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Emphasis: Human Development Intervention Research.
M.S. - 1991, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
B.S. - 1986, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee (with high honors). Major: Human Development and Family Studies.