Emily Ozer

Professor, U.C. Berkeley

"At UC Berkeley, Professor Emily Ozer's research and teaching is on school community partnerships, youth participatory action research (YPAR) and the impacts of trauma on young people. But she never allows her work to stay only in academia; her partnership with Peer Resources spans 15 years, with a tireless focus to advance the bar on youth voice, both in research and in practice. This partnership has meant Dr. Ozer providing opportunity after opportunity for young people to see themselves as leaders, from inviting Peer Leaders to present their research annually to graduate students at Berkeley, to having Peer Leaders present at the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) annual conference, to hiring graduates at any opportunity. She is a founding Professor behind the Innovations for Youth Center at UC Berkeley, committed to interdisciplinary research and practice to positively impact, upstream, youth wellness and equity. Emily elevates youths' voices to the very highest level, to make the greatest possible change."

Emily J. Ozer is a clinical and community psychologist and Professor at the UC-Berkeley School of Public Health whose work focuses on adolescent development, K-12 schooling, youth-led participatory action research (YPAR), and mental health. Key questions guiding her research are: What features of social settings promote healthier development in the face of violence and other risks? How do we best develop, test, and scale collaborative and participatory approaches to promote positive youth development? She has published widely in the psychology and health field, including in Pediatrics, Psychological Bulletin, American Psychologist, Social Science and Medicine, American Journal of Community Psychology, and Journal of Adolescent Health. She currently co-leads (with Prudence Carter and Coco Auerswald) a UC-Berkeley research initiative to reduce inequalities among youth, is the co-director of Innovations for Youth (I4Y) Center and the co-developer with SF Peer Resources of the YPAR Hub.

"I work for youth voice as a psychologist, Berkeley professor, and SFUSD parent because I know that young people have unique expertise and insights that are essential for improving their schools and communities. I work on youth voice with Peer Resources because they provide a powerful and equitable pathway for San Francisco young people to make an impact. As a social scientist, especially at a public university, I find a sense of purpose in helping to generate knowledge with a public purpose--that can help organizations like Peer Resources and SFUSD answer questions that help them maximize their positive impact.

"Peer Resources classrooms are places where young people can be themselves with their peers--maybe for the first time--and supported and known enough to learn and stretch in new ways. I also know--from what I have seen with my own eyes and from extensive published research--that participating in Peer Resources can transform the development of students into leaders, researchers, and overall more aware, skilled, and thriving human beings.

"My Peer Resources story started 15 years ago when I provided support on youth participatory action research (YPAR) for a Peer Resources coordinator. I was then on maternity leave with my daughter, now a Lowell Peer Mentor. Little did I know that the small pilot project would grow into a 15-year (and still counting) research relationship and our development of the YPAR Hub.

"My career has been enriched by my learning with Peer Resources--spending time in classrooms inspired by students’ ideas, observing Peer Resources’ master coordinators in action, and meeting countless times with the brilliant and committed Peer Resources admin team.

"Peer Resources is all about transformative relationships. I am grateful for my relationship with Peer Resources and how it has transformed my career in community-partnered research."

Emily Ozer