Curriculum Vitae
LEORA E. LAWTON
email: lawton@techsociety.com
Education
Ph.D. 1991 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Sociology. Dissertation title: The Quality of the Parent and Adult-Child Relationship and Family Structure.
M.A. 1985 Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Demography. Thesis title: Religiosity and fertility among Israeli Jews.
A.B. 1978 University of California, Berkeley, California. Economics.
Areas of Specialization
Professional Positions
2000-date. Director of Research. Informative, Inc.. Design of research and questionnaires, analysis, direct and train junior staff, support sales team, and product development/marketing efforts.
1999-2000 Senior Research Consultant. Prognostics, Inc., Palo Alto, CA. I design research, develop new statistical models, assist staff in research issues, teach methods, etc.
1997-date Founder and Consulting Analyst. TechSociety Research. Providing the high-tech industry management with useful, high quality research and analysis. Quantitative and qualitative methods. Customer satisfaction, product and service requirements, market research, markaeting strategy, outsourcing choices and technology issues as they relate to cost and quality.
1999 to date: Wheel Potato. Appointed governor of an online community; creator, implementer, and enforcer of Code of Ethics.
1997 Market Consultant. Technology Forecasters, Inc.. Design and analyze customer satisfaction surveys, marketing strategies, and other aspects of electronics manufacturers' business.
1996 Research Analyst. Bellcore. Piscataway, NJ Customer satisfaction reports, benchmarking.
1994-1996 Research Analyst. Bellcore. Morristown, NJ Design and analysis of survey data on telecommunications, technology and the Internet; program evaluation research.
l993-1996 Research Associate. Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Research on intergenerational relations.
1990 - 1993 Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Andrus Gerontology Center. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Support from the National Institute on Aging, Multidisciplinary Training Program in Aging Research.
1990 - 1993 Consultant. New Roles in Society Project. American Association of Retired Persons, Washington, D.C. Collaborator on national study of intergenerational relations, attitudes and resource equities.
Teaching Experience
1994-1995 Adjunct Assistant Professor. Montclair State University. Introduction to Social Psychology, Drugs in Society.
1994 Adjunct Assistant Professor. John Jay School of Criminal Justice. Drugs and Society.
1989 Lecturer, Brown University. Deviance and Social Control.
1988 Teaching Assistant, Brown University. Introduction to Social Psychology; Deviance and Social Control.
Other Professional Experience
1982 - 1986 Assistant Director. California State University: One Year Program at the Rothberg School for Overseas Students, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1977 - 1978 Research Analyst. Marketing Research Inc. Emeryville, CA.
Peer-reviewed Publications
Leora Lawton and Regina Bures. Parental divorce and the likelihood of "switching" religious identity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. April 2001.
Treas, Judith and Leora Lawton. "Family Life in Early and Middle Adulthood". A review article for the Handbook on Marriage and the Family. Marvin Sussman and Suzanne Steinmetz, (eds.). New York: Plenum Press. 1999.
Frances Goldscheider and Leora Lawton. Family experiences and the erosion of support for intergenerational coresidence. Journal of Marriage and the Family August 1998.
Silverstein, M., Bengtson, V., and Lawton, L. (1997). Intergenerational solidarity and the structure of adult child-parent relationships in American families. American Journal of Sociology, 103: 429-460. (per editor's erratum to appear in 2001).
Lawton, Leora, Merril Silverstein and Vern Bengtson. 1994. "Affection, contact and geographic distance between adult children and their parents." Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56, 57-68.
Lawton, Leora, Merril Silverstein and Vern Bengtson. 1994. "Solidarity between generations in families," in Intergenerational Linkages: Hidden Connections in American Society. Chapter 2, pp.19-42. New York: Springer.
Silverstein, Merril, Leora Lawton and Vern Bengtson. 1994. "Types of relations between parents and adult children," in Intergenerational Linkages: Hidden Connections in American Society, Chapter 3, pp.43-76. New York: Springer.
Speare, Alden Jr., Roger Avery and Leora Lawton. 1991. "Disability, residential mobility, and changes in living arrangements." Journal of Gerontology: 46(3): S133-S142.
Avery, Roger, Alden Speare, Jr. and Leora Lawton. 1989. "Social support, disability and independent living in the United States." Journal of Aging Studies 3(4): 279-293.
Lawton, Leora. 1988. "Religiosity as a determinant of fertility among Israeli Jews." Working Paper 88-05, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University.
Book Reviews
Fathers and Divorce, by T. Arendell. In Family Science Review.
Population Aging in the United States by
Serow, W. J.; Sly, D. F.; Wrigley, J. M. In
Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, 1998 15(1)
Manuscripts in Progress
Lawton, Leora. Geographic Distance and Divorce: A New Look at Family Migration
Trade Publications:
Lawton, Leora. Applying X-Ray: Beyond Features and Into Context. Circuits Assembly, August 2000.
Lawton, Leora. Training for Competition: The EMS Industry Approach. Circuits Assembly, February 2000.
Lawton, Leora and Sandra Fox. Contract manufacturing in a niche market. SMT Magazine, February, 1999.
Lawton, Leora. Year 2000 and the EMS industry: Ready or not. Circuits Assembly, December, 1998.
Lawton, Leora. New England EMS industry. Circuits Assembly" September, 1998.
Lawton, Leora. Nitrogen environments: Who needs them? Circuits Assembly, July 1998.
Lawton, Leora & Kathleen Brittle. Beyond technology: The keys to becoming a successful IC packaging subcontractor. Advanced Packaging, June 1997.
Lawton, Leora. Foreign attraction. SMT Magazine. This paper was initially presented at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the SMI as The attraction to emerging regions for contract manufacturers.
Lawton, Leora. Partnerships are the future of global telecommunications. Circuits Assembly. September 1997.
Lawton, Leora and Doug Larson. Advanced packaging: a balance between technology and customer demand. Circuits Assembly September, 1997
Bellcore Technical Memoranda and Reports
Presentations at Professional Meetings: Post-Academia
2000. Lawton, Leora. Effective uses of web-based survey data collection. The Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Sociology, Bethesda, MD.
1999. Lawton, Leora. Workshop: Conducting market research on the web: qualitative benchmarking of e-commerce websites. The Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Sociology, Dallas, TX.
1998, Lawton, Leora. Publishing outside of academia. Roundtable refereed discussion at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA.
1998, Lawton, Leora and Sandra Fox. Expanding the flexible circuitry market. Paper presented at Flexcon International, Santa Clara, CA.
1998. Lawton, Leora. The Asian electronics manufacturing service industry: snapshots and projections. Invited paper presented at the IPC/AMRC meetings, June 18, 1998. Washington, D.C.
1997, Lawton, Leora. Emerging regions, emerging markets. Presented at the Surface Mount International meeting, September 10, San Jose, CA.
1997. Lawton, Leora. Leisure on-line: a study of social behavior in an IRC game-playing environment. Presented at the annual meeting of The Society for Applied Sociology, October 31, 1997, Oak Brook, IL.
1996. "Cyberspace Game Show Hosts : Agents for Socialization, Not Just Entertainment" with Kenrick Mock, Intel Corporation and Michelle Hoyle, University of Zurich. Annual Meeting of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Portland, Oregon.
1995 "Strategies for finding a job in industry (when academic positions do not materialize)." Presented to the Demography of Aging Pre- and Post-doctoral Training Group, at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, San Francisco, CA.
Presentations at Professional Meetings: Academia
Lawton, Leora and Frances K. Goldscheider. Family experiences and the erosion of support for intergenerational coresidence. To be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Los Angeles, 1995.
Lawton, Leora. 1994. "Family structure and the "switching of religious identity." Presented at the 1994 Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Atlanta, Georgia.
Lawton, Leora and Frances Goldscheider. 1993. "Pathways out of the home in young adulthood and attitudes toward intergenerational coresidence in later life." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans.
Lawton, Leora and Merril Silverstein. 1992. "The influence of divorce on geographic distance between adult children and parents." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C.
Lawton, Leora, Merril Silverstein and Vern Bengtson. 1992. "The reciprocal relationship between affection and frequency of contact in intergenerational relationships" Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociology Association, Pittsburgh.
Silverstein, Merril, Leora Lawton and Vern Bengtson. 1992. "Typologies of intergenerational family relations: Evidence from the 1990 AARP Survey of Intergenerational Linkages." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociology Association, Pittsburgh.
Lawton, Leora. 1991. "Individual, family and social factors in intergenerational exchange." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, California.
Bengtson, Vern, Leora Lawton and Merril Silverstein. 1991. "Intergenerational linkages and solidarity in the family." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, California.
Lawton, Leora. 1991. "Attitudes towards reciprocity: childhood experience versus contemporary status." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Washington, D.C.
Lawton, Leora. 1990. "The effect of marital disruption on the parent/adult-child relationship." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Boston.
Lawton, Leora. 1990. "Research directions in the sociology and demography of drugs." Roundtable presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C.
Lawton, Leora. 1990. "The quality of the parent/adult-child relationship and family structure." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Toronto, Canada.
Lawton, Leora. 1988. "Children as friends: social interaction between elderly parents and their adult children." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco.
Speare, Alden Jr., Roger Avery and Leora Lawton. 1988. "Disability, residential mobility and changes in living arrangements." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, New Orleans.
Lawton, Leora. 1988. "Religiosity as a determinant of fertility among Israeli Jews." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, New Orleans.
Avery, Roger, Alden Speare, Jr. and Leora Lawton. 1987. "Social support, disability and independent living in the United States." Inter-congress Meeting of the Research Committee on Aging. University of Manitoba, Winnepeg, Manitoba.
Sessions Chaired at Professional Meetings
In Honor of Their Parents: Grandchildren's Portraits of Their Grandparents. 1992. Media Session to be held at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, D.C.
Alzheimer's Disease Management Issues. 1991. Media Session held at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, California.
Lectures to the Community
2001 "Kabbalah of the Grateful Dead: Similarities between Jewish and Deadhead rituals" Temple Peninsula Shalom.
2000 "Kabbalah of the Grateful Dead: Similarities between Jewish and Deadhead rituals" Lehrhaus Institute
2000 "A Feminist Perspective on Vashti, Esther, Mordechai and Haman. Lehrhaus Institute.
1999 "Story of the Spies" Lehrhaus Institute
1998 "Introduction to Judaism (with Rabbi Finkelman). Lehrhaus and Chochmat HaLev.
1993 "Sociology of gender and Jewish roles." Kehilla Institute, Los Angeles, CA.
1993 "Honoring thy parents: events, transitions and situations that challenge adult child-parent relationships." Beth Shalom Synagogue, Providence, RI.
1991-1992 "A Course in Jewish Ethics" Kehilla Institute, Los Angeles.
Other Training and Skills
Participant in the Center for Advancement of Teaching, a workshop on teaching skills, August 26-29, 1988.
Computer skills: SPSS, SAS, VM/CMS, Unix, PC and MacIntosh, Internet.
Awards and Fellowships
l992 Participant in the Summer Institute of the National Institutes on Aging.
1986-1990 National Institute on Aging, pre-doctoral fellowship.
Membership in Professional Organizations
Council of the Committee on Sociological Practice, American Sociological Association
Board Member, Congregation Beth Israel
Interested? E-mail me at lawton@techsociety.com