Keith, Joanne G. Ph.D.

My primary areas of expertise are youth development and families as ecological systems.  My scholarship has included research, teaching and outreach. I integrated these areas and have had a wide variety of state, national, international projects and professional experiences. Focal areas of scholarship included: 1) an assets- based approach to positive youth development; 2) demographic trends related to children, youth and families at national, state, county and community levels; 3) community collaborations on behalf of children, youth and their families; 4) community youth development; and  5) families as systems.  I served as principal investigator on several youth development research projects, worked extensively with graduate students, faculty and communities on approaches to community youth development. In terms of distance education I taught several graduate courses beginning with interactive video and for the past 12 years have developed and taught classes with both face to face and online content (hybrid) as well as totally online courses. 

My formal teaching experiences have included a wide variety of audiences including middle school youth, community college students, undergraduate and graduate students at Michigan State and graduate students on the military base in Okinawa, Japan.  Informal teaching experiences have included youth and adult audiences through Extension and many other human service organizations in Michigan, nationally and internationally.