Virginia Rutter has been working at the intersection of academia and media for two decades—first in D.C. in Congress and at a mental health organization, and then as a sociologist translating academic ideas to general audiences. She teaches in the sociology department at Framingham State University and is a member of the board of the Council on Contemporary Families. The author of two books (The Gender of Sexuality and The Love Test, both with Pepper Schwartz) and numerous articles for Psychology Today, Rutter has written on topics including divorce, marriage, gender, sexuality, stepfamilies, adolescence, infidelity, depression, women in science, psychotherapy research, couples therapy, and domestic violence. She has been seen and heard in the Boston Globe, The New York Times, NPR, USA Today, and various liberal and conservative radio programs. She was a co-investigator of the NIH-funded National Couples Survey and a public policy fellow at the National Academy of Sciences.