Helen "Lena" S. Astin (née Stavridou; February 6, 1932 – October 27, 2015) was an American academic who was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and Senior Scholar of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA.
[2] In 1965 Dr. Astin accepted a position as a researcher for the Commission on Human Resources and Higher Education with the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. At this post she completed a survey of 1653 of the 1979 women who received doctorates in 1957 and 1958 to gauge their productivity and involvement in the workforce.
[3] This research project lead to the publication of her first book The Woman Doctorate in America: Origins, Career, and Family.
[7] After deciding to continue education abroad, Astin moved from Greece independently from her family to Long Island, New York and began school at Adelphi University in 1951,[8] later graduating in 1953 with a B.A.
Both sons have followed in their parents footsteps and are educators, John a college professor, and Paul the founder of Manzanita School.