Marlene is an independent research sociologist, instructor, writer and presenter. When not researching and writing about problems in contemporary American society, she writes non-fiction short stories, essays and memoir.

Marlene earned both her Ph.D., and M.A., degrees in research sociology from University of Chicago. Her undergraduate training was in clinical psychology with an early career as a psychologist working with special-needs adolescents. Marlene’s research-based graduate and professional training allowed her to incorporate her expertise into writing about a wide range of topics well beyond purely academic issues. Owing to her background and diverse writing interests, Marlene refers to herself as “an unaffiliated Ph.D.”

Her growing interest in non-fiction writing began when she had an opportunity to research and rewrite her mother’s World War II memoir, published as, The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival. Marlene assumed the role of the manuscript editor and its co-author. That required her to authenticate and validate all historical references as well as rewriting portions and writing missing segments of the work — all essential to making the manuscript publication-ready. Her efforts culminated with the book’s publication. That experience was the catalyst for Marlene’s growing interests in non-fiction, non-academically oriented writing. The Seamstress has gone on to become an important part of the public record.

Marlene’s essays and short stories have been published both in print journals and in “on-line” venues. Some of these include Lilith Magazine, A Long Story Short, True Stories Well Told, University of Iowa Summer Writing Anthology, Story Circle Anthologies, One Woman’s Day, Writing It Real Anthologies, and others. Many of her essays can be found in publications that appear on the medium.com platform.Other projects with which Marlene has been involved include a book in her academic field that focused upon professional school graduates and their long-term labor-market attainment (University of Michigan Press), plus a research guide entitled, When Digital Isn’t Real: Fact Finding Offline for Serious Writers, (Create Space 2013). She served as lead researcher for the documentary film entitled, A Voice Among the Silent: the Legacy of James G.McDonald. (filmmaker Shuli Eshel).

Marlene’s interests include research strategies for writers, particularly avoiding factually incorrect data that result from an over-reliance upon internet-based research and how to conduct off-line, original source research. Currently, she is completing her memoir (non-fiction) comprised of historically based short stories in addition to a book of collected essays and non-fiction stories, most of which have been published by independent journals. Marlene’s longer term sociological work addresses the phenomenon of female to female aggression in America, also referred to as female bullying.

Marlene serves on University of Chicago’s Advisory Council to the Graduate Division of the Social Sciences. She was a long-time member of University of Chicago Women’s Board. In addition, Marlene participates regularly in courses with University of Chicago’s Graham School Center for Continuing Studies, specifically joint programs between University of Chicago and University of Oxford, Oxford, England.

When not researching, writing and teaching, Marlene enjoys hiking, photography, travel and serious cooking plus, of course, eating. She divides her time between Chicago, Illinois and Sun Valley, Idaho with her Rhodesian Ridgeback, Abe.