Amy Wolfson and Terra Ziporyn: EDUCATING THE EXHAUSTED

The Ivy presents an evening with Amy R. Wolfson and Terra Ziporyn, co-authors of Educating the Exhausted: Adolescent Sleep and the Struggle for a Later School Start, a newly released account of the battle to align the school day with the science of sleep.

For decades, sleep researchers have reached the same conclusion: adolescents need more sleep than current school schedules allow. Yet across the United States, most middle and high schools continue to start the day at hours that undermine student health, safety, and learning. In Educating the Exhausted, Terra Ziporyn and Amy R. Wolfson explain how research enters public decision-making--and what it takes for science to influence policy.

We hope you'll join us for this fascinating conversation at the intersection of education, parenting, science, and politics.

Order EDUCATING THE EXHAUSTED here!

Amy R. Wolfson is a Professor of Psychology at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. with longstanding scholarship on adolescents' sleep health and daytime functioning with a deep commitment to preventive interventions, including later school start times and her Sleep-Smart program for early adolescents. A Washington University graduate with a PhD in clinical psychology, her research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and she is the author of two books along with Educating the Exhausted: Adolescent Sleep and the Struggle for a Later Start. Amy’s collaborative work with DC’s Department of Rehabilitation Services and colleagues at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Rush Medical College is examining the sleep health environment and emotion regulation for youth residing in the juvenile justice system. Moreover, she is collaborating on a series of studies focused on sleep health in foster care. Amy is a co-author on the AAP 2014 Policy Statement on healthy school start times and the Abell Report, Later School Start Times for Baltimore City Public Schools: Opportunities and Recommendations. She is a member of the Start School Later (SSL) Board of Directors and a member of the Sleep Research Society’s Advocacy Task Force. For decades, she has enjoyed mentoring her students, particularly in her passion – child and adolescent sleep health research and policy!

Terra Ziporyn is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and science writer with a lifelong interest in how biology, culture, and policy shape people’s lives. A Yale graduate with a PhD in the history of science and medicine from the University of Chicago, she has written widely on medical and scientific issues, served as an associate editor at JAMA, and held fellowships from organizations including the AAAS and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Terra is also the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Start School Later, a national nonprofit advocating for healthy, equitable school hours, work that earned her the Sleep Research Society’s 2022 Public Service Award. Her books span both fiction and nonfiction, including Educating the Exhausted, which draws on decades of research, writing, and public-health advocacy.