When it comes to collaborating with students and supporting their academic aspirations, Assistant Professor of Psychology Brittany Hollis has one priority in mind.
“I want them to feel empowered,” she says. “I hope the students that I get the privilege to mentor and to work with know that they are supported and that someone believes in them.”
Support and empowerment are at the heart of her mentorship, pedagogy and research, and the impact she hopes to make through each.
“My research looks at what we call power-based interpersonal violence. This includes things like sexual violence, dating violence, and stalking,” says Hollis. “My work so far has really looked at the prevention of sexual violence and also the treatment or our response to someone coming forward with a case of sexual violence.”
Hollis received both her B.S. and Ph.D. from Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia, where many of her classmates were veterans because Norfolk is also home to the largest Naval base in the United States.