Caitlin Elsaesser is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and a licensed clinical social worker. Her research focuses on adolescent and young adult well-being and the professionals who serve them, using community-based participatory and youth participatory action research to examine what supports well-being in the context of structural inequities.

Her scholarship centers on partnering with youth and communities to co-develop health promotion efforts that are accessible, culturally responsive, and grounded in lived experience. Guided by critical race and feminist theories, her work uses participatory approaches to examine how social media and structural inequities shape young people’s lives.

Dr. Elsaesser is a leader in integrating mindfulness and contemplative practice into social work education. She developed and teaches Socially Engaged Mindfulness: Mindfulness for Social Change, an experiential course grounded in the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and informed by nonviolent communication. Her teaching supports students in cultivating presence, self-awareness, and relational capacity as foundations for ethical and sustainable social change work. In recognition of this work, she received a UConn AAUP Excellence Award in Teaching Innovation.

She is co-principal investigator of a UConn- and Trust for Meditation–funded study, Socially Engaged Mindfulness: Inner Transformation to Support Outer Transformation, which examines how contemplative practice supports sustainable engagement in social change. She previously received a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–funded K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to develop community-engaged, technology-enhanced approaches to youth violence prevention.

Dr. Elsaesser co-edited a special issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Leveraging Inner Transformation for Social Transformation, on participatory approaches to mindfulness-based intervention development, helping to advance the integration of cultre-centered community-engaged methods within contemplative science.

Dr. Elsaesser’s research is widely published in journals including Children and Youth Services Review, Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Youth & Society, Aggression and Violent Behavior, and Psychology of Violence.

Dr. Elsaesser earned her Ph.D. and MSW from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. She also holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from Dominican University and a BA in English Literature from Carleton College. She completed mindfulness teacher training through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and is certified through the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults.

Dr. Elsaesser is the mother of two children. Her perspective as a mother and mindfulness practitioner informs all parts of her work.