Dr. Kia Ferrer Successfully Defends Dissertation

Please join the doctoral program and committee Chair Cynthia Garcia-Coll in congratulating Dr. Kia Ferrer in the successful defense of her dissertation entitled, “Drawing the Curtain: A Grounded Theory Analysis of the Conceptualization of Culture, Ethnicity and Race in Professional Training Materials for Child Life Certification.”

Dr. Ferrer had numerous guests to her remote defense from the Erikson community, her family, and the Child Life field. She detailed her methods using grounded theory analysis and Garcia-Coll’s integrative model of child development to analyze documents required in Child Life Specialist training for the treatment of issues related to race, culture, ethnicity, and related concepts. She concluded that, despite some improvements in recent years, Child Life Specialist training documents still reveal entanglements with deficit-based perspectives, othering of “non-mainstream” families, and a lack of concrete actions steps for Child Life Specialists to take to increase their critical consciousness thereby improving practices and outcomes for diverse families. The Q&A periods from both the committee and the larger audience were rigorous, and included Dr. Ferrer’s ideas for next steps for the field, including embedding systemic thinking as early as possible in training, as well as wide use of case study and scenario-based written training materials.

We look forward to celebrating Kia further at Erikson’s graduation ceremony on May 5th, where Dr. Garcia-Coll will be in attendance, traveling in from Puerto Rico to hood her long-time mentee. Congratulations Dr. Ferrer!”