Education

2017     PhD, Psychology, Feminist Studies (DE), University of California, Santa Cruz 

2011     MS, Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz 

2008     Pre-doctoral research fellowship in Community Psychology, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts

2005     MA, Community Development, Clark University

1999     BA, International Studies, American University, Washington, DC

 

Teaching

PSYC 142: Community Psychology

PSYC 123: Program Evaluation

PSYC 143: Practicum in Community Psychology

PSYC 177: Special Topics: Participatory Action Research

PSYC 122: Qualitative Research in Psychology

PSYC 277: Special Topics Graduate Seminar: Critical Community Psychology and Participatory Action Research

 

Research: Get Involved in Collaborative Research with the COLLAB!

Dr. Ellison has ongoing participatory and community-engaged research positions for undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, you can also visit our COLLAB website here.

Dr. Ellison will be accepting graduate students for the Fall 2024 cohort! Please see information about our general psychology MA program here.

All research positions with the COLLAB from 2022-2025 will be focused on promoting health and well-being, and preventing and mitigating the impacts of gentrification, in South Sacramento's Morrison Creek area. The Creek area joins Avondale and Glen Elder neighborhoods near Elder Creek Elementary, George Sim Community Center, and Will C. Wood Middle School in the south east part of the city and just south of CSU Sacramento. Our work will serve the Creek development partners such as the Sacramento Community Land Trust (SacCLT), Avondale and Glen Elder Neighborhood Association (AGENA), and the Chinese Community Services Center (the Center).

• Undergraduate researchers will work in an after-school youth Participatory Action Research (yPAR) project at Elder Creek Elementary.

• Graduate researchers may coordinate the after-school setting at Elder Creek Elementary or will focus on research related to participatory research, community organizing, and outreach.

Our work is supported by external grants from the Spencer Foundation and University-Community Links (UC Links) and internal grants, including the Anchor Initiative Strategic Investment Grant, among others.

 

Scholarly Publications

Peer reviewed articles:

Research Statement

As a critical social-community psychologist, my my work focuses on empowerment, student success, community engagement, diversity, and inclusion. Empowerment, a central focus of my research, is a collective process through which socially excluded groups change inequitable power relations, increase access to resources, and promote individual and community health and well-being (Rappaport, 1981).

Specifically, I study relationships within settings (e.g., classrooms and community-based organizations) and how relationships facilitate or constrain empowerment. Relational empowerment, which is my specific focus, refers to the relational aspects required for exercising power and gaining resources for marginalized groups (Christens, 2012). Therefore, my program of research explicitly examines processes, settings and relationships supporting the development and exercise of the power to make social change.

My epistemological approach centers the expertise and perspectives of those most affected by a social issue. I often engage participants in one or more stages of the research process (e.g., issue identification, data collection, analysis, member-checks). Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research in which representatives of focus population(s) are engaged as co-researchers. I position myself as doing research with communities, engage with power and work for socially just change. My scholarship is critical, community-based, and employs multiple methods (e.g., ethnography, social network analysis, content analysis).

Core questions motivating my research agenda include: How are settings transformed into empowering ones? How can groups increase participation and power of those who often face marginalization? How do groups reject the reproduction of injustice and work together for change? I have engaged with relational empowerment among low-income youth (i.e., children, adolescents and emerging adults) of color in school-based programs, and adults of various social locations participating in social justice organizing.

 

Professional Associations

Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA), APA division 27

Community Research and Action in the West (CRA-W)

Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), APA division 9

Society for the Psychology of Women, APA division 35