Directory Profile

Courtney Welton-Mitchell

Courtney Welton-Mitchell PhD, MA

Clinical Assistant Professor
  • Department of Environmental & Occupational Health
  • Population Mental Health & Wellbeing Program

Email Address:courtney.welton-mitchell@cuanschutz.edu

View Research Profile

Twitter

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)