User:Perkindd

I'm Douglas D. Perkins, community psychologist and Professor of Human & Organizational Development (HOD), Peabody College of Education & Human Development, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennnessee, USA. I am the Founding Director of Graduate Studies in HOD, and Founding Director/Core Faculty, in the PhD Program in Community Research & Action. I am also Core Faculty in the M.Ed. Program in Community Development & Action and Community Leadership & Development Track of the B.S. in Human & Organizational Development major. I have also served as an Affiliated Faculty in the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and the Global Public Health masters program, and earlier in my career taught at the University of Utah, and briefly at Temple University and New York University. My B.A. is from Swarthmore College in Psychology with a minor in Sociology and Anthropology; and my M.A. and Ph.D. are from New York University in Community Psychology.

Research Interests:

My interdisciplinary research links community, environmental, and applied social psychology to other disciplines in focusing on participation and empowerment in grassroots organizations to improve public policy making. Problems my research, teaching, and consultation have addressed include neighborhood revitalization, housing, youth violence, crime, fear and social capital (sense of community, neighboring, networks) and disorder in urban community settings in the U.S., China, Europe, Australia, and Africa. My latest research assesses and analyzes the current state, history, and global development of all applied community studies disciplines, including Community Psychology, Community Sociology, Community Development, Community Social Work, Applied/Development Anthropology, Development Economics, Public Health, Urban/Regional Planning/Geography, Public Administration/Policy Studies, Popular/Community Education, Liberation Theology/faith-based community development studies, and Interdisciplinary Community Research & Action. I study and work with voluntary associations, non-profit organizations, and government agencies responding to such problems, at all levels but especially local government. My populations of interest include neighborhood residents and leaders, the disenfranchised, low-income, minorities, and at risk youths.

Professional Affiliations and Service: Society for Community Research & Action, Community Development Society, Urban Affairs Association, Nashville Civic Design Center Urban Design Forum.

For more information, see: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/perkins/