Current Directions in Community Psychology

These timely, cutting-edge articles allow instructors to bring their students real-world perspective–-from a reliable source–-about today's most current and pressing issues in community psychology.

Marybeth Shinn is Professor of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University.  Before coming to Vanderbilt, she taught courses in community psychology, research methods, and psychology and social issues at New York University’s Psychology and Applied Psychology departments and its Wagner School of Public Service. Beth got her undergraduate degree from the interdisciplinary Social Relations program at Harvard, and her Ph.D. in both social and community psychology at the University of Michigan.  She served as president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and of the Society for Community Research and Action (the community psychology division of the American Psychological Association) and received the latter group’s award for Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research.  Her research is on homelessness, and on ways to make social settings work better for their participants.

Emily Thaden is a doctoral student in the Community Research & Action program in the Human & Organizational Development department at Vanderbilt University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from New York University in 2002 and her Masters from Vanderbilt University in 2007. She is currently teaching an undergraduate class titled Understanding Organizations and has assisted with undergraduate and graduate level classes in systematic inquiry and action research. Her research uses a participatory action research approach to explore the responses of communities and organizations to the devolution of government support for social services, which includes work on affordable housing innovations, community development, welfare reform, and organizational change and collaboration.