Jessica Dennis is an assistant professor of psychology at California State University Los Angeles, an institution that serves predominantly ethnic minority students from lower middle and lower class backgrounds. She obtained her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of California and has worked as an investigator on numerous grant-funded research projects focusing on issues relating to the academic success and emotional functioning of ethnic minorities during adolescence and early adulthood. As a post-doctoral fellow, she worked on the College Experience Project, a longitudinal study focusing on the academic achievement and persistence of first generation ethnic minority college students at CSULA. This study followed a group of freshman for four years, collecting survey and/or interview data every quarter relating to their academic motivation, support, and emerging identity. She has also worked as a research associate and consultant on a project relating to the transition experience of transfer students at CSULA which was funded by Title V. In addition, she has served on department and college-level committees relating to student affairs and given presentations on serving the needs of first-generation and other at-risk student populations to university administrators and staff. She has published in journals such as the Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and The Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences.
