Enid Osborn, Santa Barbara's Poet Laureate Enid Osborn, administrative assistant to the deans at Fielding, was named Santa Barbara's Poet Laureate during a City Council ceremony on April 11. Though her colleagues may not know it, Ms. Osborn has been active in the local literary community for nearly 30 years, and her work has been widely published in books, journals, and anthologies. You can read some of her poems below. “Enid writes wonderfully vivid, emotional poems that evoke a unique sense of place," said Elizabeth Owen, a member of the city's Arts Advisory committee, which voted unanimously on Ms. Osborn's [...]

In 2013, visible cracks appeared in the walls of the Bangladesh garment factory complex known as Rana Plaza. But workers were ordered to return to their jobs anyway—and the next day, the eight-story building collapsed, killing 1,138 people inside. “People were buried alive. Amputations were performed on the spot,” says Richard Appelbaum, who leads Fielding’s doctoral concentration in Leadership for Social and Ecological Sustainability. “Bangladesh is the most dangerous place to be a worker. In the decade before the Rana Plaza collapse, an estimated 1,000 people died in factory fires. And yet every major clothing company in the world was producing [...]

  Fielding is proud to sponsor an intimate gathering with Renee Lertzman, PhD., on March 16 in Santa Barbara. An internationally recognized thought leader and adviser who translates complex psychological and social science research insights into clear, applied and profound tools for organizations around the world, Dr. Lertzman will speak on "Ecopsychology: The Art of Communicating for Planetary Protection" at LoaTree (508 E. Haley) from 6 to 9pm as part of the Better World series. How can understanding psychology help us be more effective in shaping behaviors and actions that are in line with what's best for our communities and planet earth? Understanding human behavior [...]

There was a time when we had to guess at a lot of things: Who’s buying what? Who’s traveling where? Which streets are busiest and at what times? They were educated guesses, but they were conjecture just the same. Enter big data. The funneling of our lives into the digital realm has allowed us to collect vast swaths of data points that can be analyzed by computers to reveal patterns and trends—and even predict future behavior. Dr. Regina Tuma “Predictive analytics is another name for it,” says Regina Tuma, a doctoral faculty member in Fielding’s Media Psychology program. “For [...]

Creating a No Take Zone in the Pacific One of the things that sets Fielding apart from other graduate schools is its roots in the real world. Our faculty isn’t made up of ivory-tower academics, but rather boots-onthe-ground scholar-practitioners who apply their knowledge to improving their communities—and helping their students do the same. A case in point is Four Arrows, aka Don Jacobs, PhD, EdD. Doctoral faculty in the School of Leadership Studies, Four Arrows practices action research with social and ecological justice in mind. School of Leadership Studies faculty Four Arrows “Action research is identifying a problem, coming [...]

These faculty members guide students through the research process Debra Bendell and Tiffany Field have known each other for three decades, and though they live on opposite coasts, they’ve been conducting research together for nearly as long. The Clinical Psychology faculty colleagues have teamed up to study pregnant women, immigrant families, preterm infants, and more. Dr. Tiffany Field “One study that we both worked on was massaging premature babies to help them grow,” says Field, PhD.” Debra used to be in charge of the neonatal intensive care unit where they evaluated and assessed these babies. We massaged them and they [...]