Hello!
I’m Dr. Anne Bentley Waddoups, a parenting & human development scholar, researcher, educator, and mom to three young adults. I’m so glad you’re here!
Bottom line: Basically, I'm an enthusiast of development, drawn to better understand how we develop, experience the world, and make meaning from our experiences. I’m passionate about making development wisdom and research understandable and useable in the daily lives of individuals and families. In particular, I’m interested in how people navigate times of change and transition in their lives and how their beliefs about those changes affect their experiences.
This has led me to research and work with a range of people in unique transitions—parents, college students, teen parents, refugee families (see my professional bio if you want to more about those projects).
But my favorite moments? It’s when I’m talking with someone about their dreams and pivots, about where they thought they’d be and where they are. I’ve found myself making my own pivots and relaunches several times in my life so I can completely relate to the thrill and bewilderment and, yes, anxiousness, that is all a part of the discovery process.
I love teaching.
I love thinking about possibilities and identifying obstacles.
I love helping parents launch their kids. And helping those same parents figure out their own “what’s next?” questions for their next stages.
I believe that launching is not a moment but an ongoing process.
I believe that it’s unique—not an assembly line but a trail you forge.
I believe in the richness and authority of people’s stories and the value of qualitative research in getting to the heart and complexity of lived experiences. (After all, at heart I’m an English major who went on to do developmental psychology graduate degrees!)
I wanted to create a playful “lab” with courses and try-its and information you can use to learn, tinker, and figure out what’s next for you—and help your young adult kids figure out their launches, too.
(Get it? Launch Squared.)
I’m here to help you navigate the “what’s next?” in your life right now. Let’s connect and get started!
Cheers,
Anne Bentley Waddoups, PhD
anne@launchsquared.org
. . .
More about my professional background here and here.