Cary Cherniss, Program Director
(732) 445-2187 phone
cherniss@rci.rutgers.edu e-mail
(732) 445-4888 fax

We care deeply about what we do and the populations with which we work, and we try to leaven our work with a combination of humor social responsibility, spiritual grounding, and practical application. The faculty includes 5 fellows of Division 27, and have a strong record of publications, policy influence, consultation, and grant related opportunities. Most of the faculty also have spent part of their careers working full time in applied settings. Students have the option of pursuing studies in community psychology through one of four different programs: the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology or the PsyD programs in Clinical. Organizational, or School Psychology. The program is a part of a major research oriented university located in the geographic center of the vibrant northeast corridor (40 miles to New York City, 60 miles to Philadelphia, a 4 hour drive or train ride to Washington, DC and 5 hours to Boston). This location provides a rich and diverse set of practicum and intervention opportunities for students. The program is a major center for the application of emotional intelligence and social emotional learning to schools, workplaces, and parenting using a community psychology/ preventative perspective. Students are able to conduct action research with a variety of methodologies, including qualitative, pragmatic case study, and multivariate quantitative. There also is a diversity of theoretical orientations represented, with no single orientation dominating.

There is a significant commitment to diversity as reflected in faculty and student gender and ethnic backgrounds. In addition, there have been notable organization-wide efforts to address diversity issues, spearheaded by a faculty-student-staff diversity committee that was created four years ago. This committee has continually examined how well the program deals with diversity issues through periodic workshops and retreats. There also are ongoing discussion groups for students and faculty, some of which have been in existence for years, that provide members with an opportunity to learn more about their own and other's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. There are also many opportunities to work with diverse minority populations, including a major school-community intervention effort directed by 2 faculty (one African American, one white) that has been in existence for over four years. Given this context, it's not surprising that many dissertations have included a focus on diversity-related issues, including a study of African-American students, parent training for Latina teen parents, and hypertension among African-American urban Populations.