Ben is a developmental scientist, former tenured faculty member and experienced licensed marriage and family therapist. He is widely published in topics such as the socialization of adolescent emotion regulation, promoting resilience through adversity, character and identity development in sports. Ben has a strong record of procuring grant funding and leading interdisciplinary research teams. His motivation to pursue his doctoral degree emerged from his clinical experience and desire to empower youth facing tremendous adversity due to socio-economic disadvantage and marginalization. As a result, he is passionate about linking research insights with practitioner wisdom to have maximum impact on the lives of youth.