Assistant Professor Betty L. Wilson joined the faculty of the College of Social Work in 2024. Dr. Wilson is
also a licensed clinical social worker with a background in community outreach services in historically
marginalized communities.

As an activist scholar, Dr. Wilson employs community-centered, qualitative methods to examine the
impacts of structural police violence on mental health outcomes in Black communities. Her research also
focuses on justice-informed efforts to address policing disparities as well as the development and
implementation of culturally-specific interventions to mitigate adverse health outcomes associated with
police violence exposure. Her award-winning dissertation, “Black and Blue: An Exploratory Investigation
of Black College Students’ Experiences of Exposure to Police Killings” introduces an integrated
conceptual framework to illustrate the psychosocial processes by which exposures to state-sanctioned
violence influences traumatic mental health outcomes at both individual and community levels. Dr.
Wilson has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Psychology of Violence, Journal of Black
Psychology, Death Studies and Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Dr. Wilson received her B.A. in sociology from Claflin University and earned her Master of Social Work
and Ph.D. in social work from the University of South Carolina. She has received many awards and
honors, including the Outstanding Social Work Doctoral Dissertation Honoree Award from the Society
for Social Work and Research, USC Breakthrough Graduate Scholar Award, Southern Regional
Education Board Dissertation Fellowship and USC College of Social Work Doctoral Student Award.