Welcome to my website. If you look around here, you will learn about my work, my research interests, and a little about my history.
Michigan State University
I am an assistant professor in the department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education at Michigan State University. My activities include teaching graduate students in School Psychology and conducting research on brain development in children at the MSU Center for Neurodevelopmental Study, where I am the Associate Director
Jodene Goldenring Fine, Ph.D. 440 Erickson Hall East Lansing, MI 48824 (517) 884-0443 Office (517) 353-5035 Lab finej@msu.edu
About Me
I am a transplanted San Francisco Bay Area Californian, having come to Michigan by way of a brief stint in Austin, Texas.
I took my undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1970s. At that time, I was interested in geologic mapping. The sort of question that interested me was, “Why is there a mountain instead of a valley there?” After graduating, I worked as a cartographer for a geotechnical engineering firm. After a few years, I started a computer software company to build a program to automate the presentation of Superfund site borehole data. Our product, GTGS, was used all over the nation and internationally for about 12 years.
In my mid 30s, I decided to become a school psychologist. During my training, I got interested in questions like, “Why can this child read and this one not?” which soon led me straight to the brain. After working for a short time as a school psychologist, I went back to school to start mapping the human brain, with a special focus on dyslexia and social competence.
Family
My husband Jody is an artist, whose medium is glass. He likes to say that he makes “beautiful yet useless objects.” He is also known as “Captain Marble” because he is famous for his part in the revival of the hand-made orbs. You can see his work at www.jfineglass.com. We have one son, Isaac, who is an immense joy to us.
Activities
During the kinder months in Michigan, you can find me sculling on the Grand River. I like to pretend that I will be good at it someday, but that is not likely. Nevertheless, being on the water for the sunrise or sunset, watching the birds and the colors change on the tress, and enjoying the company of other enthusiasts keeps me at it. You can visit the Lansing Rowing Club website at www.lansingrowingclub.org.
I am also a big lover of bluegrass and jazz. I have no more talent for that than I do for sculling, but I have been known to play the banjo and guitar at times.
