Love U2® - About Marline Pearson

Marline Pearson has been teaching social science and criminology classes at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, Wisconsin, for over 25 years. Her longstanding interest in high-risk kids and families with a focus on risk and prevention led to her interest in relationship building. In addition to social science classes, Ms. Pearson has pioneered a unique relationship skills class as part of a student success initiative.

She has co-authored with Scott Stanley and Galena Kline Rhoades, Within My Reach, a relationship skills and decision-making program for helping individuals—primarily single mothers and fathers who struggle with economic hardship—achieve their goals in relationships, family and marriage. Pearson also co-authored with Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Making a Love Connection: Teen Relationships, Pregnancy, and Marriage, a report commissioned and published by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy; authored “Can Kids Get Smart About Marriage: A Veteran Teacher Reviews Some of the Leading Relationship and Marriage Programs,” published by the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University; and “Reaching for Higher Ground: New Approaches to Teen Sexuality,” published in the Journal of Council on Family Relations. Her classes have been featured in numerous national media

Pearson is frequently called upon to discuss teen and young adult relationships and has conducted numerous trainings on teen and adult relationships, sexuality and marriage skills. Long active in educational improvement, Ms. Pearson created and taught an active-learning and teaching improvement program at her college for a number of years.

She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and two teen-aged daughters, and holds an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

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