Cathy Hammond has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Before moving to Clemson, she spent 15 years working with local and state school safety and violence prevention programs in Florida. She joined the Center in 2005 to carry out a systematic research synthesis of risk factors for school dropout. She was the Co-Principal Investigator on the Center’s longitudinal study of the South Carolina Personal Pathways to Success Initiative.