Rate My Professor Sandra Chafouleas

Sandra Chafouleas is the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Neag Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. She earned her Ph.D. in School Psychology from Syracuse University in 1997, M.S. in School Psychology in 1995, and Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership in 1998 from the same university, along with a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1993. A licensed psychologist in Connecticut, she started her career as a school psychologist intern and school psychologist in the Syracuse City School District from 1994 to 1997, followed by Special Programs Coordinator at Madison-Oneida BOCES and Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh from 1998 to 2000.

Since joining the University of Connecticut in 2000 as Assistant Professor, she advanced to Associate Professor in 2005, Professor in 2010, and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in 2017. Chafouleas serves as Co-Director of the Collaboratory on School and Child Health, with prior roles as Associate Dean for Research in the Neag School of Education (2014-2016) and Associate Dean for The Graduate School (2012-2014). Her research specializations include school psychology, school mental health, whole child approaches, emotional well-being, trauma-informed schools, social-emotional and behavioral assessment, Direct Behavior Rating, and multi-tiered systems of support. As PI or Co-PI, she has secured over $20 million in funding. She has authored over 200 publications, including books such as School-Based Behavioral Assessment: Informing Instruction and Intervention (Guilford Press, 2007; 2nd ed., 2021), Direct Behavior Rating (DBR): Linking Assessment, Communication, and Intervention (Guilford Press, 2016), and recent articles like "District administrator perspectives of current and ideal approaches to identifying and supporting student social, emotional, and behavioral needs" (Frontiers in Education, 2024) and "A mixed methods evaluation of the usability of Feel Your Best Self" (Frontiers in Education, 2024). Co-creator of the award-winning Feel Your Best Self toolkit, her work impacts school practices through national presentations and service. Major honors include the Neag School Distinguished Researcher Award (2025), APA Presidential Citation (2022), presidency of the Society for the Study of School Psychology (2018), and fellowships in APA and APS (2010).