Jocelyn Richgels, director of national policy programs for the Rural Policy Research Institute, was an invited panelist at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine information gathering session held Sept. 19 in Washington, D.C.

The session was convened by the Committee on Summertime Experiences and Child and Adolescent Education, Health, and Safety. Richgels contributed perspectives on the summertime experiences of children and adolescents in rural communities.

The committee, chaired by Martín Sepúlveda, IBM Fellow, CEO of CLARALUZ, LLC., and long-time member of the College of Public Health Board of Advisors, is studying how summertime experiences affect children across four areas of well-being: 1) academic learning and opportunities for enrichment; 2) social and emotional development; 3) physical and mental health and health-promoting behaviors; and 4) safety, risk-taking, and anti-and pro-social behavior.

Additional information is available at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/dbasse/bcyf/summertime/.