Dr. Michael J. Karcher

Michael J. Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He received a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University (1997) and a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin (1999). He conducts research on school-based and cross-age peer mentoring as well as on adolescent connectedness and pair counseling. He authored the Cross-age Mentoring Program (CAMP) program and materials. In addition to conducting research on cross-age peer mentoring, he conducted one of the first large-scale school-based mentoring studies, the Study of Mentoring in the Learning Environment (SMILE, 2003-2006) funded by the William T. Grant Foundation (www.utsasmile.org), which focused on its effects of adult-with-youth mentoring for Latino youth. Along with David L. DuBois, Professor Karcher edited the Handbook of Youth Mentoring (2005, 2013, Sage) and co-edited with Michael Nakkula, "Play, talk, learn: Promising practices in youth mentoring" (Jossey-Bass, 2010). He is on the editorial board for five national journals and the research and advisory boards of BBBSA, MENTOR, and Mentors, Inc. He lives in his hometown of San Antonio.

Additional information can be found at www.schoolconnectedness.com (on adolescent connectedness), www.schoolbasedmentoring.com (on the SMILE study) and www.professorkarcher.com (resource for articles and information).