Expert on Russian Economics and Child Development Joins Nichols College

Jeffrey Hunter, a noted expert on Soviet and now Russian Economics, has joined Nichols College as a visiting professor.

(PRWEB) January 15, 2003 - Nichols College is proud to welcome Dr. Jeffrey G. Hunter as our new Robert C. Fischer Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Spring Semester, teaching communications. Like most Nichols instructors, Hunter has an extensive business background. After 15 years in the business world, Hunter turned to teaching, and was a Nichols faculty member in the 1980s. He also taught at a maximum security federal prison in New Jersey.

Hunter is a pioneer in the study of Soviet/Russian Economics. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, I spent a lot of time in, first, the Soviet Union, and then, the Russian Federation conducting training seminars in western-style economics and business practices for government and education officials, and would-be entrepreneurs. One of my "graduates" is now Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. However, several others are in jail, just to balance things," Hunter explains.

Hunter is currently studying peer rejection in children, especially foster children. This came from my experiences as a foster parent in Rhode Island. With two other collaborators I've done a series of studies on possible causes and effects of peer rejection. Why this is important is that peer-rejected kids drop out of school, turn to alcohol and drugs, suffer from mental illness, get pregnant, become criminals, and commit suicide at much higher rates than do non-rejected kids. The people involved in the Columbine and San Diego school shooting cases were classic examples. The problem is especially acute among children who are in foster care," Hunter says.

As an offshoot of the clinically-oriented research (causes and treatments), I've spent about a year working with the Rhode Island Department of Youth, Children and Families (they call themselves DCYF) and the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association (RIFPA). These projects are also research-based, and are aimed at helping to overcome the severe shortage of foster families in R.I. I'm assisting with recruitment and retention strategies. I've just had a paper accepted by the International Applied Business Research Conference which deals with some of these initiatives. I've been invited to present it at their meeting in Acapulco in March," Hunter says.

Established in 1815, Nichols College is committed to providing the best practically-oriented business education in New England. The college offers undergraduate degree programs in business, public administration, and the liberal arts, as well as graduate degree programs in business.

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