Holy Cross Professor Receives Largest Research Grant in College’s History

WORCESTER, Mass. – The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has awarded Amy R. Wolfson, associate professor of psychology at the College of the Holy Cross, a four-year grant of $1.07 million for a sleep research study. It is the largest research grant awarded to an individual in the College’s history.

Through this grant, Wolfson will assess young adolescents’ sleep habits and evaluate the efficacy of her Sleep-Smart Pacesetter Program on middle school students from Worcester’s Forest Grove and Sullivan Middle Schools. While significant research has been conducted on older adolescents, middle school-aged adolescents’ sleep patterns and daytime functioning have been understudied. Wolfson hopes to add to the research on puberty and sleep/wake patterns.

As a longitudinal study, Wolfson will have several people who will assist her. Christine A. Marco, assistant professor of psychology at Rhode Island College, will be co-investigator on the project. Kathleen A. Barry ’05, of West Boylston, will serve as Wolfson’s research assistant. Wolfson will also have part-time student research assistants and volunteers.

A preeminent scholar on sleep, Wolfson has conducted about a dozen studies on sleep research and authored and co-authored countless journal articles on sleep. She frequently provides expert commentary for the media; she has been quoted in numerous publications, including the Boston Globe and The New York Times and women’s magazines, including Allure, Seventeen, and Woman’s Day.

Wolfson is the author of The Woman’s Book of Sleep (New Harbinger Publications, 2001), which helps readers manage the physiological and psychological factors that can wreak havoc on their sleep schedules.

A resident of Worcester, Wolfson has been at Holy Cross since 1992. She was a former director of the Women’s Studies Concentration at the College.