Meg Paceley, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Meg Paceley is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, a social worker and scholar engaged in research that examines factors in the social environment (e.g. families, communities) and broader systems (e.g. policies, societal rhetoric) and their relationship to LGBTQ+ youth’s mental health.

Dr. Paceley’s research interests include LGBTQ+ youth, health disparities, community organizing, community climate, arts-based research, qualitative research, community-based participatory research, and program e.valuation

Dr. Paceley aims to identify and evaluate macro strategies (e.g. community organizing & activism, policy advocacy, education) to confront stigma, discrimination, and victimization that contribute to mental health disparities among LGBTQ+ youth.

Dr. Paceley embeds research in principles of anti-oppressive practice and theoretical frameworks such as social-ecological systems theory, minority stress theory, and critical theories.

Dr. Paceley also utilizes scholarship to impact social work education by examining and evaluating how social work education can be more social justice-driven. Dr. Paceley’s work in this area has primarily focused on LGBTQ+-inclusion in social work education, as well as broader themes of racial and social justice and trauma informed pedagogies.