Biography

Dr. Jessica Ruglis joined the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology as an Assistant Professor in August, 2011. Dr. Jessica Ruglis was a WK Kellogg Health Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. A former public school teacher; Jessica holds a PhD in Urban Education, an MPH in Community Health and an MAT in Secondary Science Education. Dr. Ruglis conducts interdisciplinary, mixed methods, community based participatory action research. Employing an ecological and biosocial approach to inquiry, her research, theory and writing focuses on: the role of education and social policy in shaping human development, dis/advantage, insecurity and risk across the lifecourse and intergenerationally; schooling as a social determinant of health; school dropout as a public health issue; the biopolitics of school dropout; adolescent health and development; interventions for reducing school dropout and improving student engagement; alternative forms of civic engagement, capacity-building, leadership and resistance; and ethics of community and participatory research. In addition to research, Dr. Ruglis engages in local, state, national and international policy and legal issues related to this work.