Dorothy Espelage is an American psychologist. She is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), and an international expert in

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

, youth aggression, and

teen dating violence Teen dating violence is the physical, sexual, or psychological / emotional abuse (or violence) within a dating relationship among adolescents. Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been a well examined and documented phenomenon in adults; ho ...

. She has authored several books including ''Bullying in North American Schools'', ''Bullying Prevention and Intervention: Realistic Strategies for Schools'', and ''Handbook of Bullying in Schools: an International Perspective''.

Education

Espelage grew up in Virginia and received her bachelor's degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

. She then received a master's degree in

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...

from

Radford University Radford University is a public university in Radford, Virginia, United States. It is one of the state's eight doctorate-granting public universities. Founded in 1910, Radford offers curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, graduate ...

before receiving her PhD in

counseling psychology Counseling or Counselling psychology is an international discipline. It is practiced in the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong and Korea, and South Africa. Counseling psychology in th ...

from

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

. From 1997 to 2016 she worked at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she held the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell professorship in educational psychology. In 2016, she accepted a position in the department of psychology at the University of Florida.

Professional life

Espelage has appeared as a speaker and consultant in numerous media outlets such as

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

Anderson Cooper Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator who anchors the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at CNN, Cooper serves as a correspondent for ''6 ...

Oprah Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', broadcast from Chic ...

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

, and

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

. Recently, she was invited to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

in 2011 as a part of the Bullying Summit to discuss policy decisions regarding aggression in schools. Likewise, she was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

's Division 17 for Counseling Psychology. As the author of over 200 publications, Espelage is known for her work in

, homophobic teasing,

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

, and

. In particular, her research focuses on translating

empirical Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how t ...

findings into prevention and intervention programming. As a result, Espelage regularly speaks at conferences and schools to teachers, parents, and children about why bullying occurs, why bystanders do not assist victims, and what individuals can do to respond to stop school bullying, harassment, and violence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espelage, Dorothy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women 21st-century American psychologists American women psychologists Virginia Commonwealth University alumni Radford University alumni Indiana University Bloomington alumni University of Florida faculty American women academics