Faith A. Zabek

Faith Zabek earned a Ph.D. in school psychology from Georgia State University, where she studied school climate and positive youth development. During her tenure at Georgia State, she was a College of Education and Human Development Dean’s Doctoral Fellow and received a Department of Counseling and Psychological Services Outstanding Dissertation Award. She is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, and, after completing her predoctoral internship at the APA-accredited Hawaii Psychology Internship Consortium, she continued to support student mental health and well-being as a school-based practitioner with the Hawaiʻi Department of Education. She is active in professional service and advocacy, having served both as the student representative to the National Association of School Psychologists’ Government and Professional Relations Committee and as the president of the Hawaiʻi Association of School Psychologists.

Zabek applies her experience working in schools and across systems to her research initiatives. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, her research investigates student well-being through a bioecological lens, with a focus on social justice and equitable measurement. With her colleagues at Georgia State, she developed and implemented culturally responsive curriculums to promote healthy relationships and critical systems thinking among Black middle school youth in underserved communities. At Youth-Nex, she supports the initiatives of the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH), the Evidence-Informed Mental health Prevention, Assessment, Collaboration & Treatment in Middle Schools (E-IMPACTS) project, and the Remaking Middle School (RMS) project. With her colleagues, she conducts action research to promote developmentally appropriate and socially just practices in middle schools as well as to increase the use of evidence-based, equitable, and collaborative school mental health practices.

Ph.D., Georgia State University, 2020
M.Ed., Georgia State University, 2014
B.A., Depauw University, 2010

Curriculum Vitae