InfoTrak: Women and Alcohol Abuse

Award-winning journalist Ann Dowsett Johnston, author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women And Alcohol said women have closed the gender gap in the past decade, not only in their professional and educational lives, but also in terms of alcohol abuse . She noted that corporations have developed marketing strategies and products targeted exclusively to women. She expressed particular concern that alcohol manufacturers are now using social media to target teenage girls for marketing messages.

InfoTrak: Fatherhood in the Inner City

Kathryn Edin, PhD, Professor of Public Policy and Management at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and co-author of Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner Citystudied fatherhood among inner city men who are sometimes called \"deadbeat dads.\"
She said the term does not accurately describe today’s urban fathers, many of whom take pride in being involved in the lives of some of their children. She explained how economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor.

InfoTrak: Caregivers

David L. Roth, Ph.D. is Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center on Aging and Health Dr. Roth’s research found that caregivers assisting chronically ill or disabled family members had an 18 percent lower death rate than similar people who were non-caregivers. He talked about the possible reasons behind this surprising finding.

Kathryn Edin

Kathryn Edin, a sociologist, is Professor of Public Policy and Management at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She specializes in study of people living on welfare.

More about Kathryn

Ann Dowsett Johnston

Winner of five National Magazine Awards, a Southam Fellowship and the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, Ann is a gifted author and public speaker.

A respected advocate in public policy matters, she has a distinguished track record in shaping a broad variety of dynamic publications. As well, she is co-founder and co-chair of the National Roundtable on Girls, Women and Alcohol, a pan-Canadian advocacy group launched in 2013.

As a journalist, her most recent work was as the Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy. She wrote a 14-part series on Women and Alcohol, appearing in The Toronto Star.

At Maclean\'s, she was best known for pioneering the magazine\'s system of ranking Canadian universities, overseeing the bestselling annual Maclean\'s Guide to Canadian Universities and the Maclean\'s University Graduate Survey. As a columnist, feature writer and speaker, she developed a strong leadership voice on educational policy and re-investment. In 2006, she became vice-principal of McGill University, in charge of development, alumni relations and strategic communication.

As well, Ann has written on a wide variety of subjects, from the arts to mental health. Her personal writing was anthologized in Dropped Threads II: More of What We Aren\'t Told.

Ann grew up in northern Ontario, rural South Africa and Toronto. A graduate of Queen\'s University, she lives in Toronto.

Ann\'s Website