Jenni Menon Mariano

Dr. Jenni Menon Mariano serves as Professor of Educational Psychology within the College of Education at the University of South Florida, specializing in moral development, positive youth development, and purpose in life. Her research investigates how youth form commitments to positive life purposes and how learning environments foster this development through structured social supports.

She earned her PhD in Psychological Studies in Education (Child and Adolescent Development) from Stanford University with research at the Center on Adolescence, followed by a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center. Her international fieldwork includes youth development collaborations in Bosnia-Herzegovina's peace-building initiatives.

Dr. Mariano's scholarly focus examines cross-cultural pathways to youth purpose, social support systems, and purpose measurement tools. Her 2024 publication surge demonstrates a strategic expansion into generativity across the lifespan, analyzing connections to health, leadership, political engagement, and environmentalism through 24 distinct studies.

She teaches core courses in lifespan development, psychology of purpose, moral development, and classroom assessment while actively mentoring doctoral students through dissertation committees and accepting new PhD candidates for research on purposeful development.