Erika Felix, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean for Research and Outreach at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, and a licensed psychologist.
Dr. Felix’s research focuses on the risk and protective factors affecting children’s long term mental health following natural disasters, mass shootings, and terrorism and has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, and the National Science Foundation. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and covered by various news outlets. Dr. Felix trains counseling, clinical, and school psychologists on preventive interventions and trauma treatment for children and has developed a disaster mental health class for undergraduates at UCSB. In 2021-22, she served as an American Psychological Association Congressional Fellow working on disability policy across the lifespan in Senator Casey’s office in the U.S. Senate on the Special Committee on Aging.
Dr. Felix received her Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from DePaul University and completed her predoctoral internship at Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center. Recently, she was a Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project, and has been disseminating her research through OpEds in Ms. Magazine, The Hill, Education Week, Ed Source, and the Santa Barbara Independent, and through popular press articles for Psychology Today. She served on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies from 2017-2023, and currently serves on the American Psychological Association Committee on Children, Youth and Families.