Cecily Renee Jackson

Dr. Cecily Renee Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American and Africana Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University (2002) and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with a concentration in Quantitative Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2009). Her postdoctoral training includes positions at the University of Virginia, University of Pittsburgh, and Duke University as a Research Scientist before joining Maryland.

Her research focuses on how socioeconomic status (SES) shapes child development and family processes, particularly among African American communities. She examines poverty-related risks like community violence and material hardship, their impact on adolescents’ socioemotional adjustment and academic performance, and how race and class intersect to influence outcomes. Her work employs intersectionality to analyze disparities across socioeconomic strata within African American populations.

Dr. Jackson’s publications span journals in psychology, family studies, and child development, including Journal of Youth and Adolescence, American Journal of Community Psychology, and Psychology of Violence. Her research emphasizes protective factors such as family resources, maternal warmth, and ethnic identity in mitigating adversity. Current projects explore resilience mechanisms in marginalized youth and the role of contextual factors in shaping developmental trajectories.