Anna Yeakley

Professor of Psychology
Research Associate, Multi-campus Dialogue Study

Educational Background

B.S. California Institute of Technology
M.A., M.S.W. Ph.D. University of Michigan

Dissertation title:  The Nature of Prejudice Change: Positive and Negative Change Processes Arising from Intergroup Contact Experiences

Personal Statement

Dialogue can be a life changing experience—it was for me!  Getting connected to intergroup dialogue work was a major turning point and defining moment in my life.  When I first encountered the intergroup dialogue program at the University of Michigan, where I was a doctoral student, I found my passion and what energizes me.  Since 1994, I have been facilitating dialogues, training and supervising dialogue facilitators, helping to administer dialogue programs, doing dialogue research, and developing new dialogue programs on different college campuses.   Now it is a great thrill and an honor to be able to work with Jaclyn Rodriguez and the Intergroup Dialogue Program at Occidental College because it re-connects me to a professor and a school that played important roles in making me who I am today when I was a student taking psychology classes at Oxy almost 15 years ago.   My current journey with the student facilitators is another rewarding experience for me and I feel privileged to be able to engage in the dialogue process with them.  I cherish the many opportunities they give me to continue my own growth and learning and engage in the social justice education work I love so much.  My hope is to pass on to the dialogue facilitators and participants my great love for dialogue as well as the amazing skills dialogue has taught me that I get to use in my every day life--listening to understand, having a respect for the diversity among people and the deep connections we can form by sharing the richness of our stories and experiences with each other, examining my own biases and assumptions and the reasons behind my actions to keep building my own self-awareness, being able to understand the social and intergroup dynamics at play around me, being able to overcome my fear of conflict to be able to handle conflicts constructively and learn from them, and most importantly, learning how to be an ally and be able to make a difference in fighting oppression—one person, one classroom, one campus at a time! 

Spring 2006 Courses

Psychology 110:1 Peer Dialogue on Gender M 2:30-5:25 pm
Psychology 110:2 Peer Dialogue on Race/Ethnicity T 4:30-7:25 pm
Psychology 110:3 Peer Dialogue on Race/Ethnicity T 4:30-7:25 pm
Psychology 325: Practicum in Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation