Madeline Levine, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist and Author
Moving the Needle: Parents, Teens, and Resilience
Family Action Network (FAN) welcomes for the third time clinical psychologist Madeline Levine, Ph.D., the best-selling author of The Price of Privilege and Teach Your Children Well. Dr. Levine is a FAN Advisory Council member, and we have invited her to come and talk about what she feels are the current hot button topics for parents, schools, and kids. She’s been traveling the country for over a decade exhorting communities to follow best practices to raise healthy, fulfilled, compassionate and productive adults. And yet, in her view, the needle has barely moved on the levels anxiety, depression, and dysfunction in teens.
Dr. Levine is currently drafting her third book, examining some of the assumptions about the factors driving the epidemic of emotional problems in kids. She’s curious about why some kids don’t crack under pressure, while others do; why some kids handle academic and social stresses successfully; why some kids are robust where others are fragile. She’s focusing on learned helplessness as the result of parental behavior that causes a child to feel inept and powerless, and the “immaturity creep” – delayed development – that is becoming more common. As she puts it, “We’re treating our children like babies, our teens like children, and our young adults like teens.”
Dr. Levine references the acronym VUCA — Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous — coined by the military to describe the environments in Iraq and Afghanistan. She admires the major structural changes both the military and corporate America have made in response to a VUCA world, and hopes for a similar shift in education and parenting. Collaboration trumps solo efforts; social and emotional intelligence matters more than IQ; horizontal rather than vertical leadership. Come join us for what promises to be a very thought-provoking evening. Dr. Levine is a FAN favorite – a sharp mind with strong views, leavened with true compassion and love for kids, teens, and families.

Upcoming Events
Poverty, by America (Event 1 of 2)
Matthew Desmond, Ph.D.
Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Reuben Jonathan Miller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
Poverty, by America (Event 2 of 2)
Matthew Desmond, Ph.D.
Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
Alex Kotlowitz
Bestselling author, journalist, and professor at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University
Evanston Township High School Auditorium
Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).
Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society
Arline T. Geronimus, Sc.D.
Professor in the School of Public Health and Research Professor in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan
Doriane C. Miller, MD
Professor of Medicine and the inaugural director of the Center for Community Health and Vitality and the director of Health Equity Integration for the Institute of Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago
ON ZOOM