The Center for Diversity, Equity, and Well-Being in Schools is an interdisciplinary research center housed in the Psychology Building at the University of Memphis that promotes applied and transformative research to make positive changes in PK-12 schools. The Center consists of faculty members representing a broad span of academic orientations including education, school psychology, counseling psychology, criminal justice, and policy development.

The Center was initially formed in 2022 by Dr. Emily Srisarajivakul after she completed her training as a school psychologist amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the tragic school shootings in Uvalde, TX. She saw first-hand how each of these events affected her students and families with which she worked and wanted to create a space where the challenges of youth from marginalized backgrounds could be explored and culturally-relevant interventions and supports could be developed. As a result, the Center is focused on both research and outreach/service projects involving diversity, equity in educational attainment, school safety, school violence prevention, school climate, and the application of positive psychological virtues, concepts, and interventions in schools. 

To follow in the grand tradition of the research labs in the Psychology Department at the University of Memphis, we chose an animal mascot and acronym that we believe represents our Center and the work we do.

Because we want to break the mold of what is being done in research and practice, we chose the dragon because we felt that its mythical quality represents the out-of-the-box thinking we strive to do. Our acronym is below.