University of Nebraska—Lincoln

About the UNL Department of Educational Psychology

The University of Nebraska—Lincoln, chartered in 1869, is an educational institution of international stature.  UNL is listed by the Carnegie Foundation within the “Research Universities (very high research activity)” category.  UNL celebrated the 145^th anniversary of its founding on February 15, 2014.

The Department of Educational Psychology at UNL was created in 1908 as one of the founding departments of the Teachers College.  The Department is an eclectic mixture of nationally recognized academic researchers and teachers working within four areas of study:

• Cognition, Learning and Development
• Counseling Psychology
• Quantitative, Qualitative and Psychometric methods
• School Psychology

Click here for more information about the Department of Educational Psychology at UNL.

Dr. Susan M. Swearer is the Willa Cather Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and Co-Director of the Bullying Research Network She is the principal investigator on the Target Bullying Intervention Program, which started in 1998, and she has a long-standing track record working with schools nationwide to reduce bullying behaviors. Dr. Swearer directs the Empowerment Initiative, a series of translational research and outreach projects designed to support personal, social, and cultural acceptance. She received her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, her M.A. in Special Education from the Pennsylvania State University, and her B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Swearer has developed and implemented a data-based decision-making model for responding to bullying among school-aged youth and has conducted staff trainings in elementary, middle, and high schools, with the goal of helping school personnel establish cost-effective and data-based strategies to reduce bullying behaviors. She is the co-author of Bullying Prevention and Intervention: Realistic Strategies for Schools (2009) and co-editor of the books, Handbook of Bullying in Schools: An International Perspective (2010) and Bullying in North American Schools, 2nd edition (2011). Dr. Swearer has authored over 100 book chapters and articles on the topics of bullying, depression, and anxiety in school-aged youth. Her Target Bullying Intervention Program was featured on CBS Sunday Morning in February 2011, and she was an invited presenter at the White House Bullying Prevention Conference in March 2011. Her work has been featured in numerous print, radio, and television outlets.

As a licensed psychologist, Dr. Swearer is a supervising psychologist in the Child and Adolescent Therapy Clinic at UNL and for seven years was the Director of the Nebraska Internship Consortium in Professional Psychology. Additionally, Dr. Swearer is the Chair of the Research Advisory Board for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and writes a research-to-practice blog that can be found at: https://bornthisway.foundation/its-about-you.