Source: NCSU COLLEGE OF AG & LIFE SCIENCES, 12/17/12

Ben Silliman, professor and youth development extension specialist, is an expert in family life, youth development, and program evaluation. Prior to serving in his current position at NC State, Silliman taught undergraduate and graduate courses in human development and family life at Louisiana Tech University for six years and was an associate professor and family life specialist for eight years through University of Wyoming Extension. At the University of Wyoming, he contributed to the launch of The Wyoming Children, Youth, and Families At-Risk program.

Silliman joined the Wolfpack in 2001 and has worked on diverse, interdisciplinary projects in the realm of youth development and program evaluation over the last two decades. One of his first projects was helping coordinate afterschool programs statewide, providing training to afterschool staff and support to county programs to promote positive youth development in afterschool settings. Soon after, Silliman became involved in extension evaluation efforts at the county, state and national levels, including managing the North Carolina component of the National Study of Positive Youth Development —a national study that illustrated how 4-H promoted positive youth development from elementary to middle school and into high school. This was just one of a long list of projects focused on evaluating extension youth development programs that Silliman contributed to. He also contributed to the first study on the impacts of 4-H public speaking programs and a study on 4-H camping programs that used experiential learning as a tool for evaluation.

For more of this story, click here.