Dr. Courtney Welton-Mitchell is trained as a social psychologist and a mental health clinician. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, where she directs the Certificate in Public Health Preparedness and Disaster Response. She is also a research associate with the Natural Hazards Center, Institute for Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder where she supports NSF, FEMA and CDC funded research initiatives. She is a current Fulbright Scholar Ambassador and former Fulbright Scholar. She co-founded the Humanitarian Assistance Applied Research Group at the University of Denver and was the Director from 2014-2018.
Her research focuses on health/public health interventions in disasters and complex humanitarian crises using mixed methods. She has conducted studies on group-based mental health, gender-based violence, and disaster preparedness interventions, including public health messaging campaigns and social norms approaches to attitude and behavioral change. Increasingly, she has turned her attention to understanding psychological and other factors influencing risk communication, perception, and behaviors during disasters, including in relation to COVID-19. She is a member of the COVID-19 Risk and Social Policy Working Group, and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's Public Health Working Group.
Areas of Expertise
- Intervention research in disasters and complex humanitarian crises (mental health, gender-based violence, disaster preparedness)
- Public health messaging campaigns and social norms approaches to attitude and behavioral change in disasters and complex humanitarian crises
- Psychological and other factors influencing risk communication, perception, and behaviors during disasters and complex humanitarian crises
Education, Licensure & Certifications
- PhD, Social Psychology, University of Denver, 2012
- MA, Affect/Social Psychology, University of Denver, 2009
- MA, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of New Mexico, 1997
- BFA, New School for Social Research/Parson’s School of Design, 1992
Awards
- U.S. Fulbright Scholar Ambassador—U.S. Fulbright Commission (2020-2022)
- U.S. Fulbright Research Scholar—Malaysian-American Commission on Education Exchange (2017–2018)
- Outstanding Dissertation in Psychology, American Psychological Association—Div. 56 Trauma Psychology (2013)
Courses
- PUBH 6842: DrPH Seminar—Professional Skills
- EHOH 6645: Research Methods: Climate Change, Disaster and Humanitarian Perspectives
- EHOH 6642: Disaster Mental Health
- EHOH 6625: International Disasters and Global Humanitarianism
Research
- PI: Adapting and Testing an Intervention to Integrate Workforce Mental Health into Pre-K-8 School Emergency Preparedness via Shared Leadership and Peer Support. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Being implemented 2021-2023.
- Senior Personnel: (grant1) Flipping the Switch to Easing COVID-19 Restrictions: How Variation in State Policy and Public Health Messaging Strategies Impact Risk Perceptions and Behaviors Across Time. (grant2) Partisanship, Trust, and Vaccine Hesitancy: Impacts of the 2020 Election on COVID-19 Risk Management. U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), RAPID Response. Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. Being implemented during 2020-2021.
- PI: Seed Grant: Research Development Funding—Integrating MHPSS, social norms, and access to justice to address domestic violence in conflict affected populations: Adapting and testing a model in Iraq and Colombia. In collaboration with Heartland Alliance Int’l. Funder: ELRHA Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC). Implemented 2019.
- Awardee: U.S. Fulbright Research Scholar—Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange. Placement: University of Science, Malaysia—Centre for Research on Women and Gender (KANITA). Implemented 2017-2018.
- PI: Empowering Displaced Communities to Prevent Intimate Partner Abuse: Messaging Intervention to Change Attitudes, Promote Help-seeking, and Improve Well-being among Syrians in Lebanon and Rohingya in Malaysia. Through CU Boulder, in collaboration with Tenaganita Malaysia and ABAAD Lebanon. Funder: U.S. State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees, Migration. Implemented 2016-Dec 2018.
Publications and Presentations
- Tol; Ager; Bizouerne; Bryant; Chammay; Hamdani; James; Jansen; Leku; Likindikoki; Panter-Brick; Pluess; Ruttenberg; Savage; Welton-Mitchell; Hall; Harper-Shehadeh; Harmer; van Ommeren (2020). Improving mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in humanitarian settings through research: reflections on research funded through the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crisis (R2HC) program. Conflict and Health, 17, 71.
- Roberts, J. D., Dickinson, K. L., Koebele, E., Neuberger, L., Banacos, N., Blanch-Hartigan, D., Welton-Mitchell, C., & Birkland, T. A. (2020). Clinicians, cooks, and cashiers: Examining health equity and the COVID-19 risks to essential workers. Toxicology and Industrial Health, 36(9).
- Jewell JS, Farewell, C, Welton-Mitchell, C, Lee-Winn A, Walls J, Leiferman JA (2020). Mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: An online survey with a U.S. sample. JMIR Form Res, 2020;4(10): e22043.
- Riley; Akther; Ali; Noor; Welton-Mitchell (2020). Systematic human rights violations, traumatic events, daily stressors and mental health of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Conflict and Health, 14, 60.
- Welton-Mitchell, C., Bujang, N.H., Hussin, H., Husein, S., Santoadi, F., James, L.E. (2019). Intimate partner abuse among Rohingya in Malaysia: Assessing stressors, mental health, social norms and help-seeking to inform interventions. Intervention: Journal of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict Affected Areas, 17(2), 187-196. doi: 10.4103/INTV.INTV_18_19.
