Linda Charmaran, PhD

Research Scientist
Wellesley Centers for Women

Linda Charmaran, PhD is a research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women and a former T32 NICHD postdoctoral scholar. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Education from University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. Currently a New Connections grantee with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and collaborating with the Boston Childrens Hospital, Center on Media and Child Health, her work is centered on how televised media and online social networking communities influence adolescent risk or resiliency. She is Principal Investigator of the Media & Identity Project, which includes an online survey of over 2300 participants (aged 12-25 from 47 U. S. states and 26 countries) and 34 follow-up in-depth interviews from the larger survey sample.

Specializing in qualitative methods within mixed-method, interdisciplinary teams, Dr. Charmaraman has conducted mixed-method research on social media, youth media production, adolescent sexuality, bullying, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, racial/ethnic identity development, drop-out prevention, and program evaluation. Besides RWJF, Dr. Charmaraman has been a PI, co-investigator or consultant on projects funded by NICHD, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Department of Education, Kellogg Foundation, Schott Foundation for Public Education, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Borghesani Community Foundation, and Aids Action Committee of Massachusetts. She has published studies using mixed methods in peer-reviewed journals (i.e., Journal of Adolescent Health, Journal of School Health, Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Youth & Adolescence as well as edited books (Girls’ Sexualities and the Media, and forthcoming, Women of color and social media multitasking: Blogs, timelines, feeds, and community).