Dr. Thomas Akiva, the winner of the 2016 OST SIG Scholar Award, is a faculty member in the department of Psychology in Education at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on understanding and improving OST programs for children and youth. In this issue he discusses the role of OST research as an essential component of public scholarship to educate diverse democracies (this year's conference theme). He discusses youth-adult interaction and research-practice partnerships.

Issue 20