Kristie Seelman
Associate Professor Associate Professor and BSW Program Director School of Social Work- Education
Bachelor’s degree in psychology, Allegheny College
MSW, University of Denver
Ph.D., University of Denver
- Biography
Dr. Kristie Seelman is an Associate Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Program in the School of Social Work. She currently teaches courses related to human development and social welfare policy. Dr. Seelman’s research focuses on understanding and addressing health disparities affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people across the life course, improving health services and education settings for LGBTQIA+ people, developing LGBTQIA-affirming policies, and promoting LGBTQIA+ resilience and resistance to oppression. Current research projects focus on transgender adults’ experiences in accessing healthcare, resilience among LGBTQIA+ adults, health disparities affecting sexual minority women, and anti-racist policy analysis.
Dr. Seelman currently holds a 4-year appointment on the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Specialist Roster. She is a past recipient of a loan repayment program contract from the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities and was a 2020 Public Interest Technology Universities Network (PIT-UN) fellow. The PIT-UN fellowship supported her work on Project LGBTQ+ RISE UP, a 1-year multimedia research project with co-PI Dr. Beth Mynatt (Georgia Tech) that studies LGBTQIA+ adults’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Seelman’s research has been published in journals such as Social Work, Annals of LGBTQ Public & Population Health, Journal of Gender Based Violence, The Gerontologist, and the International Journal of Transgender Health. Her research has received media attention from outlets such as The Washington Post, Slate, The Academic Minute (NPR), and Newsweek.
Dr. Seelman’s professional background includes experiences developing educational programs for low-income families, supporting and training young adult volunteers, and conducting outreach and advocacy to address childhood hunger. She has participated in both the AmeriCorps VISTA and the AmeriCorps Bonner Leader programs. Dr. Seelman received her Ph.D. and MSW degrees from the University of Denver. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Allegheny College (Meadville, PA).