Dawn-Marie Wood

Professor Wood is an assistant teaching professor of psychology with a background in behavioral neuroscience. She specializes in scientific writing, diversity studies, and the psychology of gender. Teaching a variety of foundational as well as upper-division courses for BYU's Psychology Department, she has oriented hundreds of students to the major and has served as a designated faculty mentor to dozens of undergraduates throughout their experiential-learning and senior-capstone experiences. In addition to speaking at forums and participating as a panelist at campus-wide events, she is a co-investigator in ongoing research studying the effects of mindfulness training among marginalized groups of BYU students and has also examined the effects of psychology of gender courses on religiosity, views of gender roles, and perspectives on homosexuality in the campus community. Professor Wood is the 2023-24 recipient of BYU's FHSS Martin B. Hickman Innovation in Teaching Award, she has served as a research associate and an audience-specific content editor for the Utah Women & Leadership Project, and she currently contributes as a member of the Psychology Department's Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and as co-chair of the faculty and student-led Belonging & Diversity Committees. Professor Wood also directs the Psychology Mentored Research Program (which places dozens of underrepresented students in mentored research labs each academic year) and oversees the planning and implementation of campus events and training initiatives structured specifically to enhance belonging in BYU's Department of Psychology. She and her husband are the parents of four children, and she is currently serving as a Teacher Improvement Specialist (conducting Teacher Council Meetings with gospel instructors) in her ward and as a Stake Education Mentor (supporting the Church Education System's new Utah Education Initiative) in the Sandy Utah Crescent Ridge Stake.