Our Sexuality

About Karla BaurLaura WidmanRobert Crooks

Dr. Laura Widman is an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. She has a doctorate in clinical psychology and postdoctoral training in HIV/STD prevention. Dr. Widman has an active program of research focused on adolescent sexuality and sex education. Dr. Widman has published more than 90 manuscripts and book chapters and she has presented her work to national and international audiences. After more than a decade of teaching undergraduate human sexuality courses using the OUR SEXUALITY textbook Dr. Widman was delighted to join the authorship team to contribute to the 14th Edition and to this enhanced 14th Edition. With sadness we announce that Dr. Robert Crooks passed away at the end of the 13th revision. Dr. Crooks had a doctorate in psychology and in addition to graduate training that stressed clinical and physiological psychology he had a considerable background in sociology. His involvement with teaching human sexuality classes at the university college and medical school levels spanned over two decades. Dr. Crooks and his wife Sami Tucker were involved in the establishment and implementation of HIV/AIDS intervention programs in two areas of Kenya. For more than a decade their work with these projects included designing a research strategy for assessing behavior change developing a peer educator-based educational strategy and conducting training sessions for Kenyan peer educator staff. Karla Baur has retired as co-author after 13 editions of OUR SEXUALITY. A licensed clinical social worker in private practice she specializes in couples and sex therapy. In addition to providing clinical supervision seminars and lectures for other mental health therapists and professional groups Baur has taught human sexuality and female sexuality classes at Portland Community College Portland State University and Clark College. At Oregon Health Sciences University she taught a human sexuality course and coached medical students in taking sexual histories with patients. She was also involved in a six-week program in Kenya to train HIV/AIDS prevention peer educators. Certified as a sex educator therapist and sex therapy supervisor by the American Association of Sexuality Educators Counselors and Therapists Baur earned a master's degree in social work and her advanced academic work stressed clinical training.