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Core Faculty in the Community Psychology program include:
- Area Head: Noelle Hurd (also faculty in Clinical Psychology area)
- Lanice Avery (also faculty in Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality)
- Channing Mathews
- Joe Allen (also faculty in Clinical Psychology area)
- Charlotte Patterson (also faculty in Developmental Psychology area)
The doctoral program in Community Psychology emphasizes an ecological perspective focusing on structural inequality and social justice. Students take courses on structural determinants of inequality, critical perspectives on psychological research, program evaluation, prevention and intervention, and quantitative and qualitative methods. Students complete a mandatory community field laboratory in which students work collaboratively on a project with community partners. Students typically develop expertise in at least one other area of psychology, often developmental, social or clinical psychology, or in another discipline such as education. The curriculum and training program emphasizes interdisciplinarity and the application of psychological research to help solve societal problems.
Examples of current faculty and student research topics include experiences of risk and resilience among underrepresented college students; race, gender, sexuality, and mainstream media; bystander interventions to disrupt online racial discrimination; Black women's intersectional identities and their psychological and sexual health; natural mentoring relationships within Black families; peer influence in adolescent development; and gay and lesbian families.
Drs. Avery and Hurd will be admitting students into the Community Psychology doctoral program for August 2025.
The application for the PhD programs in the Department of Psychology has eliminated the GRE requirement, beginning with the applications for the 2021 admissions.