Dr. Sandra L. Caron is Professor of Family Relations and Human Sexuality at the University of Maine, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in family studies and human sexuality. She has been a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for nearly 40 years. She is the founder and director of several nationally recognized peer sexuality education programs including, Athletes for Sexual Responsibility and Male Athletes Against Violence. For two decades, she wrote a weekly sexuality newspaper column and hosted a radio show on sexuality called “Sex Matters.” She now hosts a national website for college students — collegesextalk.com.

Dr. Caron received a Ph.D. in human development with an emphasis in human sexuality in 1986 from Syracuse University, where she studied under Dr. Sol Gordon, along with Dr. Clive Davis. She left her position at Cornell University to return to her home state of Maine where she joined the University of Maine faculty in 1988.

Her research and publications have focused on the social-sexual development of young people, with an emphasis on sexual decision-making, contraceptive use, safer sex, sexual assault, sexuality education, and cross-cultural perspectives. In addition to her three editions of “The Sex Lives of College Students,” she has authored two books published by Pearson, “Sex Matters for College Students: FAQs in Human Sexuality“ and “Sex Around the World: Cross–Cultural Perspectives in Human Sexuality,” and a children’s book, “Birds and Bees and More: How Babies Are Made and Families Form.”

Dr. Caron has received numerous recognitions for her work. Most recently, she received the 2019 Distinguished Maine Professor Award from the University of Maine Alumni Association. In 2013, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center in Bangor, Maine, for her contribution to the field of sexual and reproductive health. In 2002, she received the University of Maine Presidential Public Service Achievement Award and, in 1999, the Margaret Vaughn Award from the Family Planning Association of Maine, for her outstanding contribution to sexuality education. She received UMaine’s 1998 Presidential Outstanding Teaching Award and, in 1997, was the first recipient of the university’s Faculty-Student Centered Award.  To contact directly, email: scaron@maine.edu