Cheryl at Penn State

Cheryl’s Biosketch

Cheryl Dellasega earned her Ph.D. in health education and counseling, and has worked clinically as a nurse practitioner. She is an expert on relational aggression (RA), a form of bullying used by females. She is the author of five nonfiction books on issues affecting women: Forced to be Family (Wiley, 2007), Mean Girls Grown Up (Wiley, 2005), The Starving Family (Champion Press, 2005), Girl Wars (2003), and Surviving Ophelia (2001). In 2007, Dr. Dellasega’s YA fiction series, Bloggrls, was launched by Marshall Cavendish. Dr. Dellasega’s speaking, writing, and teaching offer essential insights into the different conflicts that arise within the context of female friendships and family relationships.

As the founder of Club and Camp Ophelia™ she has helped diverse groups of girls confront and overcome relational aggression. Her expertise in the world of girls has led to frequent requests for her training workshops for teachers, therapists, and other adults who work with young women. In addition, her resources for girls have garnered appreciation and praise from organizations across the country.

As a Professor of Humanities in the College of Medicine and Professor of Women’s Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Dellasega teaches medical students in the Department of Humanities and conducts research on psychosocial issues. She is an international expert on family relationships and completed a visiting professorship in Sweden.

Dr. Dellasega’s work with girls has led to several accolades: The YWCA Reilly Award (2007), The Pennsylvania State University Outreach Award (2004), The Mae Carvel Award (2003), AAUW Woman of the Year Award (Harrisburg, PA chapter) (2003), and Distinguished Alumni of Millersville University Award (1992). Her book The Starving Family was given the prestigious June Roth Medical Writing Award in 2006 by the ASJA, as well as the Family Choice Award.

Cheryl has been a consultant to the Girl Scouts of the USA and Mattel Corporation’s We Believe in Girls initiative. (You can read her advice column, “Ask Dr. Dellasega” at www.webelieveingirls.com.) She has spoken to thousands of adults and youth across the country about female relationship issues.

She lives in Hershey, PA where the five local chapters of Club and Camp Ophelia that are thriving often invite her to drop in for a session.

Since 2005, Cheryl and Anne Einhorn, MSW, have collaborated on a theatrical version of Club Ophelia which involves staging a rewritten version of Hamlet which offers Ophelia a happier ending. You can read about the project in New Moon for Girls Magazine, found at http://www.newmoon.org/magazine/.

Appearances

She has appeared as an expert on national and local television and radio shows and in print to discuss breaking news items and the every day challenges facing women today. Here follows a sampling of her media experience.

Television
  • The Today Show, NBC
  • Good Morning America, ABC
  • To The Contrary, PBS
  • Real Life with Mary Amoroso, CN8
  • MSNBC

National Print
  • Redbook
  • Cosmopolitan
  • Glamour
  • CosmoGirl!
  • Girl Scout Leader
  • Brain, Child
  • Marie Claire
  • The Oregonian
  • Christian Science Monitor
  • The Allentown Morning Call
  • Parent to Parent (syndicated column)
  • Harrisburg Patriot News
  • The New York Times
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer
  • The Wall Street Journal

Radio
  • USA Radio Network “Daybreak”
  • Voice of America “Coast to Coast”
  • Wisdom Radio Network & Sirius Satellite Radio “Wisdom Today”
  • WAMC National Productions “The Round Table”
  • Media Tracks “Viewpoints”
  • America Online “The Kidd Kraddick Show”
  • RK Radio Network “The Ruth Koscielak Show”
  • WGVU Grand Rapids, MI “Open Mind”
  • WLI New Haven, CT “Mom & Dad Mondays”
  • KSFR Albuquerque, NM “The Journey Home”
  • KTKK Salt Lake City, UT “Interviews & Interactions”
  • WFHN Cleveland, OH “Family Matters”
  • WPIS Boston, MA “Everything Evie”
  • KMOX St. Louis, MO “Total Information Sunday”
  • WLW Cincinnati, OH “The Mike McConnell Show”
  • WBAA (NPR affiliate) Indianapolis, IN “AM 920 Magazine”
  • WVSN Chicago, IL
  • KVON (ABC Radio) Napa, CA “Morning Edition”
  • KBEM Minneapolis, MN “Morning Show”
  • WRMM Rochester, NY “Tony & Dee in the Morning”
  • WCHB Detroit, MI “Inside Detroit”
  • KCMN Colorado Springs, CO “Tron in the Morning”
  • WBEV Beaverdam, WI “The Idea Exchange”
  • WFTL Pompano Beach, FL “Mom Talk”
  • WBSM Providence, RI “The Peter Bradley Show”
  • KTRS St. Louis, MO “KTRS Morning Show”

Testimonials

Comments on Surviving Ophelia (Perseus, 2001; Ballentine, 2002) and as an audiobook from Black, and in Taiwan and China as a trade paperback:

“Without promising to bring back the myth of a mother’s power to protect and heal, Dellasega’s book offers support and guidance for mothers who have hitherto felt powerless.” —Terri Apter, author of The Myth of Maturity

“Surviving Ophelia is mesmerizing and the truth of its stories resonates.” —Sue Wellman, President, The Ophelia Project

“This courageous book offers clear insight and direction to mothers struggling with how to help their daughters restore their future while they reclaim their own lives.” —Carol Maxym, co-author, Teens in Turmoil

Comments on Girl Wars (Fireside, 2003):

“Cheryl Dellasega, author of Surviving Ophelia, and Charisse Nixon, a developmental psychologist and Ophelia Project board member, offer effective, easy-to-implement strategies that range from preventive to prescriptive.” —Free Spirit Publishing

“Prevent bullying among preteen and teen girls and also learn how to intervene should it happen. Easy-to-implement strategies range from preventive to prescriptive.”
—Community Intervention Tools to Help Youth

“In this uniquely prescriptive guide, two experts show how to stop adolescent girls from hurting each other with cruel words and insensitive actions, offering parents and other concerned adults a positive program for building self-esteem and forming positive, supportive relationships.” —Paperbacks for Educators

Comments on The Starving Family (Champion Press, 2005) with The Starving Family Workbook (Champion Press, 2005):

“Dellasega is a midwife for stories of struggle and hope that can nurture every person touched by the crisis of eating disorders.” —Joe Kelly, President, Dads and Daughters, and author of Dads and Daughters

“This rich, deeply feeling book is a nourishment of connectedness: we are not alone. Thank you, Cheryl Dellasega.” —Laura Collins, author of Eating With Your Anorexic

Comments on Mean Girls Grown Up (Wiley, Inc., 2005):

“Dr. Dellasega enlightens us about the sources of women’s aggression towards each other and she provides us with extremely valuable tools for how to overcome our various roles in the hierarchy and learn more constructive and compassionate means to relate to other women.” —Debra Mandel, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Healing the Sensitive Heart

“The mean girls of our youth don’t fade away. They become poisonous women. The stories in Cheryl Dellasega’s powerful new book about grown up mean girls will chill you. Luckily, Dellasega offers strategies for us to protect ourselves from the sting of adult queen bees and their minions.” —Marla Paul, author of The Friendship Crisis: Finding, Making, and Keeping Friends When You’re Not a Kid Anymore

“Dellasega has provided a guide for sizing up and changing our own behaviors that get in the way of constructive communication in our personal and professional lives. This is an insightful, practical guide to recognizing and responding to the Queen Bee syndrome.”
—Diana J. Mason, RN, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of American Journal of Nursing



Banner Photo by Stuart Leask