Kimberly S. Young O'Mara

Kimberly Sue Young  O'Mara, 53, of 54 South Kendall Ave., formerly of 474 South Kendall Avenue, passed away, February 28, 2019, at Hope Hospice in Lehigh Acres, Fl.

Born September 9, 1965 in Buffalo, NY, she was the daughter of the late David Pawlowski and Florine Young, who resides in Clarence, NY, and her late stepfather was William Meyer.

On June 7, 1997 in St. Francis Church, she married James Edward O'Mara, who passed away February 5, 2017.  

A 1983 graduate of Clarence Senior High School, she graduated from State University of Buffalo NY in 1988 with a B.S. in Business Administration and concentration in Finance. She later graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1991 with a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and in 1994 with a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She compelted an internship in clinical neuropsychology through the Cleveland Veterans Administration Center in 1994 with an externship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in neuropsychology. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester Medical School prior to entering teaching and academia at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford where she taught psychology from 1995-2002.

In 2002, she joined the faculty at St. Bonaventure University, initially teaching in the School of Business until 2006. In 2006, she joined the Russell J. Jandoli School of Communication as the program director in the Master’s in Strategic Leadership program.

The pinnacle of her career was being the pioneer researcher to first identify Internet addiction as a psychological condition in 1995. She is a licensed psychologist and became known as an internationally known expert on Internet addiction. She founded the Center for Internet Addiction in 1995 and published numerous articles and books including, Caught in the Net, the first to identify Internet addiction, Tangled in the Web, Breaking Free of the Web, and Internet addiction: A Handbook and Guide for Evaluation and Treatment. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The London Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, CNN, CBS News, Fox News, Good Morning America, and ABC’s World News Tonight. She received the Psychology in the Media Award from the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the Alumni Ambassador Award for Outstanding Achievement from Indiana University at Pennsylvania.

Dr. Young also founded the first US-based inpatient hospital clinic for Internet Addiction at the Bradford Regional Medical Center and she created the 3-6-9-12 Screen Smart Parenting Guidelines the first parenting guidelines based on the developmental age of the child (ages 3-6-9-12 and beyond).

She has testified for the Child Online Protection Act Congressional Commission and she had served as a keynote speaker at the European Union of Health and Medicine, the International Conference on Digital Culture in Seoul, Korea, the US Army War College in Pennsylvania, and the First International Congress on Internet Addiction Disorders in Milan, Italy. She also served on the National Academy of Sciences panel for the Digital Media and Developing Minds colloquia.

She served on the editorial board of the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, the American Journal of Family Therapy, Addicta: The Turkish Journal of Addiction, the International Journal of Cyber Crime and Criminal Justice, and on the advisory board of Cyber Psychology: Journal for Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, and a member of the American Psychological Association.  

In 2013, she pursued a creative side to her writing when she wrote, The Eighth Wonder, her first and only novel that is a love story in a similar modern-day version of Bridges of Madison County that takes places around The Kinzua Bridge in Mount Jewett, PA. Later, after her battle with cancer and after the passing of her husband, she finished her memoir, Building Mountains from Dust in 2017. 

She was also active in a variety of civic activities in Bradford where she served in numerous leadership capacities.  She served on the boards of Journey Health Systems, Beacon Light Behavioral Health Systems, and Rotary Club of Bradford, where she also served as president and was a Paul Harris Fellow.  She also served on the University of Pittsburgh’s Advancement Council.  

She is survived by a step sister, Suzie (Jerry) Maras of Buffalo; and two nephews, Christopher (Chelsea) Maras of Buffalo and Blake (Kimberly) Maras of Westfield, two grand neices Pearl Maras and Eleanor Maras, and one grand nephew, Wesley Maras.  

Friends are invited to call from 10:00am to 11:00am, Saturday, March 16, 2019, in St. Bernard Church, at 11:00am a Mass of Christian Burial will be concelebrated with Rev. Raymond Gramata, Pastor of St. Bernard Church, Rev. Leo J. Gallina, retired Pastor of St. Bernard Church, and Rev. Michael Calabria, of St. Bonaventure University. Burial will be in St. Bernard Cemetery.  

Memorial contributions, if desired, can be made to the Bradford Hospital Foundation, J.E. O'Mara Fund, or St. Francis Church or to the charity of the donor's choice.  

Arrangements are under the direction of the Hollenbeck-Cahill Funeral Homes, Inc.  

Online condolences can be made at www.hollenbeckcahill.com

 

 

HOLLENBECK-CAHILL Funeral Home

33 South Avenue • Bradford, PA 16701

All Condolences -

Was so very saddened to hear of the passing of Kimberly. I had the great fortune to have met her when she came on a speaker-tour to Sydney, Australia in 2012, and she very generously shared her expertise with my own emerging interest in the complex field of ''internet addiction'', cases of which we began to see more frequently in Australia. Your global influence will be greatly missed.
— Dr. Philip Tam

I had no idea Kim was so ill. I will remember her joyful laugh and her shy happy smile. I''ll remember dancing and shared stories over wine. I will remember her.
— Dan Parker

Condolences

  • Was so very saddened to hear of the passing of Kimberly. I had the great fortune to have met her when she came on a speaker-tour to Sydney, Australia in 2012, and she very generously shared her expertise with my own emerging interest in the complex field of ''internet addiction'', cases of which we began to see more frequently in Australia. Your global influence will be greatly missed.

    — Dr. Philip Tam
  • I had no idea Kim was so ill. I will remember her joyful laugh and her shy happy smile. I''ll remember dancing and shared stories over wine. I will remember her.

    — Dan Parker