Ann Masten, Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Institute of Child Development, was named the 2011-12 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs. The resources provided by this appointment will allow Masten and her colleagues to initiate a new phase of community-based collaborative work focused on promoting school readiness and success among homeless and highly mobile children through interventions to build executive function skills, which are increasingly recognized as critical to educational success.

The overall goal of Masten's work is to build capacity and strategies for addressing the striking disparities that she and her colleagues have documented in the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) related to poverty, homeless, and highly mobile status. For more information, see this press release.