Dr. Edwards (she/her) is an educational psychologist. Her research and scholarly expertise include school safety at the intersections of race, class, and gender, the critical wellness and academic outcomes of Student of Color, and culturally relevant and sustaining teaching pedagogy. She is a certified K-6 teacher with over ten years of experience teaching, mentoring, and directing out-of-school-time programming for youth from underserved communities across the country.
Dr. Edwards has led workshops on increasing school safety, addressing student trauma, and employing a racial equity lens within institutions. Her research has been featured in media outlets like the LA Times, NPR, EdWeek, and EdSource.An Afro-Latina born and raised in New York City, Dr. Edwards is a first-generation alumna who has committed her life to bridging research and practice to improve educational equity, access, and outcomes for Students of Color and low-income youth. Dr. Edwards is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at the Boston College Lynch School of Education & Human Development.
Education
 | Doctor of Philosophy in Education |
| Masters of Arts in Education |
 | Bachelor of Arts in Clinical Psychology and Child Development |
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Academic Professional Experience
Interests and Expertise: My research lies at the intersections of education, psychology, and human development. My expertise and research interests include racial equity in K-12 education, school climate and safety, anti-Blackness in schools, the role of race, gender, social class and culture on teaching and learning, teaching pedagogy and praxis, and trauma and toxic stress
Academic Appointment
Visiting Assistant Professor, Boston College
Lynch School of Education and Human Development
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Current Courses
APSYCH2243: Social Oppression & Transformation Applied Developmental & Education Psychology Department Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
2021-2022 | Researcher for Office of the Wasserman Dean Initiative: Promoting justice, diversity, inclusion, and racial equity at the School of Education & Information Studies Leadership: Dean Tina Christie, Associate Dean Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, Interim Chair Megan Franke
2019-2022 | Researcher at the UCLA Black Male Institute Lab: Gateway to Graduation Project Principal Investigator: Tyrone C. Howard, PhD
2017-2019 | Researcher for the UCLA Middle School Diversity Project: Middle/High School Diversity Study Principal Investigators: Sandra Graham, PhD & Jaana Juvonen, PhD
2017-2019 | Researcher for the Children’s Understanding of Economic and Social Inequality Lab (CUESI): The Friendship Project Principal Investigators: Sandra Graham, PhD; Rashmita Mistry, PhD
2017-2018 | Researcher for the UCLA Cognition Lab: Incubation & Creativity Study Principal Investigator: Gerardo Ramirez, PhD
2019-2021 | Fieldwork Supervisor & Instructional Coach
UCLA Teacher Education Program School of Education & Information Studies
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2020-2021 | Lecturer
CADV350: Applied Cognitive Development
Department of Child & Adolescent Development
California State University-Northridge, Northridge, CA
Summer 2019 | Reader
ED92F-Academic Success in the Undergraduate Experience Academic Advancement Program
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2018-2019 | VIPS Graduate Mentor
VIP Scholars Program
Academic Advancement Program
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2018-2019 | Teaching Assistant for Prof. Tyrone Howard
ED-130: Race, Class, Gender &. Inequality in US Schools
School of Education & Information Studies
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2017-2019 | Co-Instructor w/ Dr. Samarah Blackmon, Dr. Jonli Tunstall, & Prof. Tyrone Howard
ED98-Sister to Sister
School of Education & Information Studies
UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2015-2018 | K-5 Teacher
Camino Nuevo Charter Academy-Castellanos, Los Angeles, CA
Math & Literacy Intervention
2015 | Behavior Interventionist
Behavior Frontiers, Los Angeles, CA
Applied Behavior Analysis
2014-2015 | 5th Grade English Language Arts Teacher
KIPP Scholar Academy, Los Angeles, CA
Teaching & Curriculum Development
2013-2014 | Director of Student & Family Programs
Breakthrough Collaborative, Providence, RI
Out-of-School-Time Youth Development & Education Programming
2011-2013 | K-6 Teacher
Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral
Academy, Cumberland, RI
Teaching, Curriculum Development, & Teacher Leadership
Publications
Featured Publication
Centering Race to Move Towards an Intersectional Ecological Framework for Defining School Safety for Black Students
Abstract: Across time, frameworks for assessing school safety have failed to acknowledge the harm that institutional racism in school inflicts upon Black students. Such frameworks coupled with disparate outcomes resulting from policies meant to increase safety in schools have long begged the questions, “What does school safety look like for Black youth?” and “How do we promote it?” This manuscript calls for an intersectional ecological framework that considers racial–cultural, gender and queer identity, academic, social–emotional, interpersonal, and physical safety as critical dimensions of school safety for Black adolescents in middle and high school. This paper centers race—specifically Blackness—to offer a heuristic theoretical model for moving beyond colorblind paradigms of school safety. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.
Impact Statement: By highlighting the impact of institutional racism on Black students’ safety, this manuscript offers important theoretical contributions to help inform how researchers define and assess school safety. This manuscript also highlights common, day-to-day systems and practices in schools that threaten the safety of Black students, and offers school leaders, teachers, and staff a vision of what school safety could look like for Black students in middle and high school.
Edwards, E.C. (2021). Centering race to move toward an intersectional ecological framework for defining school safety for Black students. School Psychology Review, 50 (2-3), 1-19. DOI:10.1080/2372966X.2021.1930580
Seider, S., Edwards, E., Henry, D., Huguley, J., Diaz, B., & Daza, K. (revise & resubmit). Investigating the relation between youth critical consciousness and academic achievement for BIPOC and White adolescents. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology
Edwards, E.C. (in preparation). Measuring Black Student Safety: Using Higher-Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis to Validate a New Measure with California Healthy Kids Survey
Edwards, E.C., Edwards, E.J., Allen, T. (in preparation). Race, police, and school safety: A case-study exploring the impact of police presence on school safety and Black youth
Edward, E.J., Edwards, E.C. (in preparation). Charter schools, school choice, and homelessness: Analyzing homeless youth services in charter school networks.
Diaz, B., Edwards, E., & Seider, S. (in preparation). Investigating the influence between commitment to activism and an achievement-as-resistance orientation in Black and Latinx adolescents.
Edwards, E.J., Edwards, E.C., Thompson, D., Stevens, R., Johnson, S. (2021). Reassessing the Homeless Initiative Strategies: Findings from CEO-HI Countywide Community Engagement Sessions
[White paper]. Los Angeles, CA. Chief Executive Office of Los Angeles County. Edwards, E.J., Edwards, E.C., & Howard, T.C. (2021). The Unseen & Unsupported Students in Charter Schools: An Analysis of Charter School’s Student Homeless Population in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles, CA. UCLA Black Male Institute Policy Brief. Online: https://blackmaleinstitute.org/unseen-and-unsupported/
Media Coverage: UCLA Education & Information Studies. (2021, August 25). “The unseen and unsupported in charter schools.” Magazine of the School of Education and Information Studies. Los Angeles, CA. Online: https://issuu.com/uclaedis/docs/ed_ismagsummer21-final-pgs
Media Coverage: Jones, C. (2021, February 24). “Homeless students in L.A. charter schools struggle more than peers at traditional schools study finds.” EdSource. Online: https://edsource.org/2021/homeless-students-in-l-a-charter-schools-struggle-morethan-peers-at traditional-schools-study finds/649815
Media Coverage: McDonald, D. (2021, February 02). “Unseen and Unsupported: UCLA’s Black Male Institute Looks at Experiences of Student Homelessness in LA County Charter Schools.” UCLA Ampersand. Online: https://ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu/unseen-andunsupported-uclas-black-male-institute-looks-at-experiences-of-homeless-students-inla-county-charter-schools/
Edwards, E.C., Edwards, E.J., & Howard, T.C. (2020). Keeping Students Safe in Los Angeles: An Analysis of LAUSD School Incident Reports & Funding. Los Angeles, CA. UCLA Black Male Institute Policy Brief. Online: https://blackmaleinstitute.org/keepingstudents-safe-in-los-angeles/
Media Coverage LaPlante, M. (2020, September 17). Undisciplined: Cops & scholars [Radio broadcast]. Utah Public Radio. https://www.upr.org/term/elianny-edwards#stream/0
Media Coverage: Brand, M. (2020, July 1). LAUSD board cuts $25 million from school police, puts it toward hiring mental health workers [Radio broadcast]. KCRW. https://www.kcrw.com/people/elianny-edwards
Media Coverage: Sparks, S.D. (2020, June 24). “Do school police make Black students feel more or less safe?”. Edweek. Online: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/do-school-police-makeblack-students-feel-more-or-less-safe/2020/06
Media Coverage: Blume, H. and Sonali, K. (2020, June 23). “LAUSD board to decide whether to defund school police”. Los Angeles Times. Online: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-23/lausd-board-to-decide-whetherto-defund-school-police
Media Coverage: McDonald, D. (2020, June 23). “Black Male Institute: New Research Brief on Keeping Students Safe in LA Schools.” UCLA Ampersand. Online: https://ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu/black-male-institute-new-research-brief-on-keepingstudents-safe-in-la-schools/
Edwards, E.C., Tunstall, J., Blackmon, S., Beasely, M., Smith, M., Howard,T., & The Black Male Institute (2019). Sister to Sister: A Model for Creating Academic Counterspaces for Black Women at HWIs” Los Angeles, CA. UCLA Black Male Institute Brief Report. Online: https://eliannyedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FINAL-COMPLETED-VERSION_-Sister-to-Sister-Brief-2.pdf
Edwards, E.J., & Edwards, E.C. (2021). The Black smugglers of higher education: How Black students, scholars, and faculty members disrupt schooling institutions to educate Black youth. In K. Watson, N. Cisneros, L. Perez Huber, V. Vélez (Ed.). Like a Path in Tall Grasses: A Handbook of Race and Refusal in Higher Education. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. (Forthcoming, Fall 2023).
Edwards, E.C., Edwards, E.J. (2020, August 17). Raising Afro-Latinx children in the era of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter. American Psychological Association Successful Black Parenting Magazine. August/September 2021. Online: https://successfulblackparenting.com/2020/08/17/vidas-negras-raising-afro-latino-children-inthe-era-of-covid-black-lives-matter/
Presentations and Conference
Academic Audiences
Edwards, E.C. (April 2023). Measuring Black Student Safety: Using Higher-Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis to Validate a New Measure Using the California Healthy Kids Survey. [Symposium]. American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
Edwards E.C. (April 2021). From violence to safety: Centering school-based relationships to increase school safety in schools. [Round Table]. American Educational Research Association, Virtual Conference.
Felkey, J., Edwards, E.C. (April 2021). Perceived racial/ethnic miscategorization and psychological adjustment: The role of school safety and diversity in middle school. [Poster Presentation]. Society for Research in Child Development, Virtual Conference.
Edwards, E.C. (April 2020). What does safe mean? Exploring school safety policies and definitions in charter schools [Conference Symposium]. American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
Edwards, E.C., & Graham, S. (April 2018). Ambiguously ethnic: The association between racial-ethnic miscategorization. [Poster Presentation]at 2018 Society for Research on Adolescence, Minneapolis, MN.
Edwards, E.C. (May 2018). Money thoughts: Black boys’ understanding of wealth, poverty, and success. [Poster Presentation]. UCLA Research & Inquiry Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
Gaither, S., Schultz, J., Camilo, E., & Sommers, S. (April 2010). Children’s ability to remember and identify ambiguous mixed-race faces. [Poster Presentation]. Museum of Science. Boston, MA.
Edwards, E.C. (September 2022). Schools as Unsafe Places: Race, Culture, and Psychology in Urban Schools. Course: Reimagining School and Society. Institution: Boston College. Professor of record. Prof. Gilda Morelli
Edwards, E.C. (September 2022). Interrogating No Excuses Approaches to Education. Course: Transformative Teaching and Learning. Institution: Boston College. Professor of record: Prof. Scott Seider
Edwards, E.C. (November 2021). Culture, climate, and race in schools: Putting theory into practice. Course: Social Foundations in Schools. Institution: University of California, Los Angeles. Professor of record: Prof. Tyrone Howard
Edwards, E.C. (November 2021). Digging deeper into climate: Applying a racial equity lens to examine school systems, structures, policies, and practices. Course: Cultural Competence in Schools. Institution: University of Massachusetts, Boston. Professor of record: Prof. Carola Suárez-Orozco
Edwards, E.C. (October 2021). Critical Wellness, Race, & School Policy: Examining and meeting the needs of Black students and families. Course: Race & Education. Institution: California State University, Dominguez Hills. Professor of record: Prof. Amina Humphrey
Edwards, E.C. (August 2019). Motivation, safety, and success: Navigating academic success and support systems during critical adolescent transitions. Course: Academic Success in the Undergraduate Experience Institution: University of California, Los Angeles. Professor of record: Dr. Ifeoma Amah
Edwards, E.C. (March 2023). Race-Conscious Approaches to Shaping the Internal Contexts of Schools. Afrolatinizamos at California State University of San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA.
Edwards, E.C. (October 2022). Centering race to examine school safety for Black adolescent youth. Boston College Applied Developmental & Educational Psychology Colloquium, Chestnut Hill, MA.
Edwards, E.C. (August 2021). Technology and learning: Using flipped classroom models and other instructional strategies to support student learning. UCLA Teacher Education Program, Los Angeles, CA.
Edwards, E.C. (May 2021). Virtual learning: Engaging diverse learners in remote and hybrid learning environments. Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and UCLA Pritzker Center Public Partnership for Wellbeing, Los Angeles, CA.
Edwards, E.C. (May 2021). Keeping students safe in LA: Unpacking school safety…research and policy. Teacher Education Department, California State University Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles, CA.
Edwards, E.C., & Edwards, E.J. (November 2020). The state of education, opportunity, and wellness for Black children. California Association of Black School Educators, Los Angeles, CA.
Edwards, E.C., Powell, T., & Orange, T. (July 2020). “99 problems: Are school police one?” UCLA Parent Empowerment Project and the Culture and Equity Project for Center X. Los Angeles, CA.
Edwards, E.C. (June 2019). A community approach to safety: Utilizing community to buffer the effects of stress and trauma on students. People Power Convention, Community Coalition, Los Angeles, CA.
Edwards, E.C. (March 2019). Hood Rich: Community Cultural Wealth and Black boys’ perceptions of poverty and success. UCLA Gateway to Graduation Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
Camilo, E. (December 2010). Supporting low-Income, first-generation students of color at Tufts. Annual Tufts University Board of Trustees Dinner.
Media
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