Margaret Beale Spencer

Margaret Beale Spencer is the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. She developed the phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (P-VEST), a framework that examines resiliency, identity, and competence formation primarily in youths of color. Her Urban Resiliency Initiative emphasizes educational contexts, interrogates neighborhood policing encounters, and seeks to reduce vulnerability and increased resiliency. She received the American Psychological Association’s (2018) Lifetime Achievement Award. Spencer was a contributing author to the RSF edited volumes Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to Collegeand Neighborhood Poverty Volume 1 and  Volume 2.