Welcome to the office of Nelson Professional Chair at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. 

Our mission is to support the work of Community Based Programs all over the nation while examining the reasons for their importance.  The benefit of afterschool activities as well as community building programs is well known, and yet we often find that there is disconnection and isolation between these programs serving communities in need.  Our goal is to act as a connecting link between such institutions, and to further the research and understanding of what works and why in the community.

Office of Nelson Professional Chair is headed by Dr. Anderson J. Franklin, Professor of Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College Lynch School of Education.  He has been serving as the Honorable David S. Nelson Professional Chair since 2007. He is also Professor Emeritus of Clinical and Social Personality Psychology at The City College and Graduate School of The City University of New York, past member and Chair of the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs of the American Psychological Association (APA) and past president of The Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic and Minority Issues, a division of the APA.