Health Psychology

Tenured

Faculty

Contact Dr. Case

Education

• Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 2003

Research Interests

As a mixed-methods social psychologist, Dr. Case examines how healthy organizational cultures promote belonging and flourishing within workplace and educational settings. Currently, Dr. Case's research focuses on the impact of workplace factors on how faculty navigate job demands with particular attention to health, performance, and retention outcomes. Her research investigates how workplace norms, faculty affairs policies, and applied practices result in positive or negative experiences for scholars, for example, by invalidating or rewarding their work in faculty promotion. Additional projects include community-engaged work examining structural barriers to healthcare access for low-literacy adults and policy change grounded in community perspectives. Her national and international faculty development work focuses on support for faculty career engagement and success by tackling topics such as job crafting, values alignment, invisible labor, self-worth in the academy, imposter feelings, and defining “enough.”

Select Publications

• Case, K., Alexander, A., Lee, K., Howard, S., & Bodnar-Deren, S. (2026). Public scholarship in faculty evaluation: Disrupting what matters and what counts. Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, 26(2), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.70081
• Case, K. (2025). The academic workplace culture cycle model: Mapping the impact of dominant norms on social justice faculty careers. Current Psychology, 44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08291-z
• Case, K., Keeley, J., Cobb, C., Joy-Gaba, J., & Shivy, J. (2025). The Syllabus Challenge: A faculty development intervention for inclusive teaching. To Improve the Academy, 44(2), 236-264. https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.6428
• Saunders, J., Stephens, D., & Case, K. (2025). The relationship between celebrities and body image ideals among Hispanic and Black women. Feminist Media Studies. Advance online. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2025.2564859
• Buchanan, N., Rios, D., & Case. K.A. (2020). Intersectional cultural humility: Aligning critical inquiry with critical praxis in psychology. Women and Therapy, 43, 235-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2020.1729469 

Affiliations

• Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
• Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race
• Association for Psychological Science

Awards

• Presidential Award (PACME), Faculty Recipient, VCU, 2024
• Society for Teaching of Psychology Awardee, 2024
• Trailblazer Faculty Award, College of Humanities and Sciences, VCU, 2024
• Distinguished Leadership Award, Committee on Women in Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2019
• Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award, Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division 2), 2018