About the Contributors
Sandra Russ, PhD is a full professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University. For over the last twenty years, Dr. Russ has focused her research on understanding the role of pretend play in child development. Dr. Russ is particularly interested in studying the relationship between pretend play and the development of creativity, coping skills, and emotional understanding. In addition, she has developed intervention procedures to help preschool and school-aged children improve their play skills. She has also developed a measure of pretend play abilities in children. In the future, she intends to explore play abilities and strengthening play abilities in children with a variety of diagnosed problems (i.e. depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, and PTSD). She is author of Affect and Creativity: The Role of Affect and Play in the Creative Process (1993) and Play in Child Development and Psychotherapy: Toward Empirically Supported Practice (2004).
Elizabeth Short, PhD is a full professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Short is a trained developmental, cognitive, and clinical psychologist. She has focused much of her research on the cognitive, emotional, and motivational factors that impact learning, school achievement, and social development in preschool and school-aged children. She is involved in a number of projects that apply her interests to a variety of populations, including very low birthweight children, cocaine-exposed children, and children with a variety of diagnosed problems (i.e. learning disabilities, language disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and autism). Dr. Short has authored numerous publications concerning her work researching psychosocial and cognitive aspects of child development.
Dr. Lisa Huisman Koops is an assistant professor of music education at Case Western Reserve University specializing in early childhood music, elementary general music, and world music education. Dr. Koops currently teaches early childhood music classes at the Cleveland Music School Settlement and has taught general music in Michigan public schools as well as early childhood music at Michigan State University’s Community Music School. Her research interests include Gambian children’s music, world music pedagogy, agency in music education, and early childhood music. She is also interested in helping to empower early childhood and elementary teachers to use music in their general classrooms. Dr. Koops has presented at local, state, and national conferences in the fields of music education, ethnomusicology, and liturgical music and has published in Journal of Music Teacher Education, TRIAD, Audie, and The Hymn. She is the recipient of a Glennan Fellowship (2008) and a Worldwide Learning Environment grant (2008). She enjoys putting theory and the practice of play together when spending time with her two-year-old daughter.
Kelly Christian, B.S. is a graduate of Cornell University, ‘04 where she developed her research and clinical interests in child development and pretend play. Currently, Ms. Christian is a third year, child clinical psychology graduate student at Case Western Reserve University. Much of her research focuses on helping preschool children improve their play skills as well as educating caregivers on ways they can strengthen their child’s play abilities. In addition, she is currently working on a project exploring the relationship between anxiety in school-aged children and their play skills. In the future, she looks forward to continuing her work exploring the importance of children’s pretend play and guiding children and caregivers to utilize play.