About REVOY

From working the weekend shift in a battered women's shelter to being the Public Education Specialist at the National
Resource Center on Domestic Violence, MaryAdele explored the dynamics of dating violence. She assisted in writing the Liz
Clairborne's "Love is Not Abuse" booklet for parents: A Parent's Guide to Teen Dating Violence - 10 Questions to Start the
Conversation." Moreover, she organized the resources and public education campaign material for National Domestic
Violence Awareness Month [October].

When she arrived at college as an "emerging adult" she tested her independence,
competence and alcohol tolerance. Luckily, the risks she took were not life threatening
and she had a solid foundation of family support, friendships, and education to fall back
on.

Leaving college with a degree in Philosophy prepared MaryAdele to be...well anything
she wanted. Nobody was really hiring philosophers at the time, so she put her passion
of human rights and living violence-free to work and began her 10 year career in the
domestic violence movement. During the early years, MaryAdele successfully
completed a Masters in Human Development from the University of WI-Madison where
her interests in adolescent development could be nurtured.

PDF of Revoy's Resume

High School Graduation May, 1989

"I don't know if anybody really
enjoys high school, but it sure
is an interesting time. I can
see now how those days
impacted who I am today."

Education and learning is not limited to school, but

life-long learning should be part of human development.

Loving relationships, starting in adolescence, should be safe and safety is a basic human right.
Humans make mistakes. Learning from them is necessary and talking about them is vital to
understanding how to prevent them from happening again.
There is something good in every person, it may just take extra work, extra time, passion,
persistence, and the belief that everybody wants to do what is right to find it.
Hard work isn't hard or work when you love what you do.
Making a positive difference in the life of other person is an honor.
Adolescents can be really wild, crazy, passionate, moody, energetic, hungry, creative, strong,
questioning, yelling, organizing people and I love it! We all need a time to define who we are.
Creating an active lifestyle is a lot easier than sticking to an exercise routine.
Chocolate sometimes is the answer.
The band U2 is the greatest band in the world.
Dancing is the best way to feel young.

Philosophies that MaryAdele Lives By

"One of the best things I ever
did for myself was
assume that I could learn
anything at anytime
on any day of the week.
Anybody can do the same."

Meet MaryAdele Revoy, MS

As a young girl, MaryAdele made some small cracks in the “glass ceiling" when she became the first altar girl in her catholic
grade school and the first female usher at the movie theater where she worked during high school.

But it wasn’t all funny robes and free popcorn, during her adolescence MaryAdele would define her own path. She was
“grunge” before there was “grunge.” She hung out with skateboarders when it wasn’t an official sport. She skipped school to
go to Madison, Wisconsin only to have her car break down. And she enjoyed dying her hair, shaving her head and wearing
pajamas bought at Goodwill to school.

It all started in a foster home somewhere on a farm south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At 2 months old MaryAdele went from the farm to Broadway, the street where
her adopted family lived in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

From working with victims and prevention agencies, MaryAdele transitioned to working with offenders when she took
various positions at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. In her position as Crisis Intervention worker for the female
maximum prison in Wisconsin, she began to understand the dynamics of criminal behavior and criminal thinking. She
had particular interest in those areas when she worked for the Division of Juvenile Corrections.

All of MaryAdele's life experiences, education, and career choices seemed to mesh when she began to explore the world
of adolescent brain development. As an a former teen who hit some bumps on her own journey through adolescence,
she is excited to look at human development, particularly adolescent development, through a brain perspective. She is
energized about the growing field of research and the amazing findings of some of the best scholars in the field. She is
excited about the opportunity to share this information with people who care for and work with adolescents.

MaryAdele's passion, humor and creativity is evident in everything she develops and presents. She loves the challenge
of funneling a huge body of research into workshops and trainings for direct service providers, correctional staff,
teachers, coaches, parents, youth, etc. Moreover, she admits that her tendency to be super-organized allows her to
have fun with the newest office products in order to discover new ways to be efficient.

Adolescent Brain Blog