Jessie Shepherd
Lecturer
Profile
Biography
Jessie Shepherd is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist from California, USA, and a Lecturer in the Education Department. She teaches and supervises across our psychology in education programs, also serving as Deputy Pathway Director for the MSc Psychology in Education pathway.
Jessie joined the department in 2023, building on 12 years of community mental health experience and six years contributing to the development of trainee psychologists as a supervisor and lecturer. She successfully completed her PhD in 2023, focused on Social and Emotional Learning for Refugee and Migrant girls.
Going forward, her research is dedicated to understanding how characteristics and issues of equity impact high-risk groups, improving social and emotional competences, and enhancing the mental health and well-being of refugees and migrants.
Career
Previous Teaching Experience
Lecturer
- University of York, York, 2023-Current
Associate Lecturer
- Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, 2022-2023
Contract Lecturer
- Ohlone Community College, Fremont, California, 2019-2023
- California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California, 2017-2020
- University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 2019 (one term)
- The Wright Institute, Berkeley, California, 2016-2019
Research Experience
- Department of Health Science, Research Support Officer, University of York, 2020-2022
University roles
Deputy Pathway Director, Psychology in Education MSc
Research
Overview
Her future research is dedicated to exploring the complex interplay between individual characteristics and pervasive issues of equity, investigating how these factors profoundly impact the well-being and social-emotional development of high-risk groups. This involves a deep dive into pedagogical and psychological approaches that can effectively improve social and emotional competences, recognizing their vital role in fostering resilience and navigating adversity.
She is also interested in understanding how to create more equitable and supportive environments for vulnerable populations, with a particular focus on refugees and migrants.
This work primarily focuses on early and primary school-aged children and utilises a qualitative or mixed methodology.
She is accepting PhD applications related to her research interests.
PhD Research
Title: Teachers’ Perceptions and Pedagogical Practices Regarding Social and Emotional Learning for Refugee and Migrant Girls.
My PhD research was to better understand primary school teachers' perspectives, skills, and values related to teaching social and emotional skills (or mental wellbeing curriculum) to female refugee and migrant students.
The hope was to build a case that reinforces the need for more teacher training and support around refugee and migrant social and emotional skills development. Ultimately this research was about increasing wellbeing and resilience in high-risk populations, and better understanding how to decrease mental ill-health in school aged children.
Projects
- Co-Investigator: Exploring the Impact of Animal-Assisted Reading Programmes (AARP) for Children with SEND. Quality Education Fund (QEF): The QEF mainly caters for worthwhile non-profit making initiatives within the ambit of school education, i.e. kindergarten, primary, secondary and special education
- Co-Investigator: Understanding the Intersection between Postgraduate Students’ Academic and Wellbeing Needs, Bell, B. (PI), Shepherd, J., O’Reilly, D., Lamont, J. Education Small Grants Funds Awarded May 2024.
Research group(s)
Publications
Selected publications
- Shepherd, J. (2026). Experienced Teachers’ Reflections and Practices Relating to Refugee Girls Needs. Journal of Pedagogical Research
- Shepherd, J. (2024). Teachers’ perspectives and practices relating to refugee girls: a mixed-methods multidisciplinary survey. Education 3-13.
Full publications list
- van der Feltz-Cornelis, C., Turk, F., Sweetman, J., Khunti, K., Gabbay, M., Shepherd, J., ... & Banerjee, A. (2024). Prevalence of mental health conditions and brain fog in people with long COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis. General hospital psychiatry.
- Turk, F., Sweetman, J., Chew‐Graham, C. A., Gabbay, M., Shepherd, J., van der Feltz‐Cornelis, C., & STIMULATE‐ICP Consortium. (2024). Accessing care for Long Covid from the perspectives of patients and healthcare practitioners: A qualitative study. Health Expectations, 27(2), e14008
- Van Der Feltz-Cornelis, C. M., Shepherd, J., Olaya, B., Vanroelen, C., Gevaert, J., Cepa, O. B., ... & EMPOWER, C. (2023). Empower: Design of a digital intervention for workplace stress and mental health. A European study. European Psychiatry, 66(S1), S160-S161.
- van der Feltz-Cornelis, C., Shepherd, J., Gevaert, J., Van Aerden, K., Vanroelen, C., Cepa, O. B., ... & Olaya, B. (2023). Design and development of a digital intervention for workplace stress and mental health (EMPOWER). Internet Interventions.
- Olaya B, Van der Feltz-Cornelis CM, Hakkaart-van Roijen L, Merecz-Kot D, Sinokki M, Naumanen P, Shepherd J, van Krugten F, de Mul M, Staszewska K, Vorstenbosch E. (2022). Study protocol of EMPOWER: A cluster randomized trial of a multimodal eHealth intervention for promoting mental health in the workplace following a stepped wedge trial design. Digital health, 8, 20552076221131145.
- Moe-Byrne, T., Shepherd, J., Merecz-Kot, D., Sinokki, M., Naumanen, P., Hakkaart-van Roijen, L., Van Der Feltz-Cornelis, C. (2022). The effectiveness of digital health interventions on employees with work-stress, physical or mental health problems at the workplace: A systematic review. PLOS Digital Health.
- Shepherd, J. (2022) Positionality and reflexivity for early career researchers and postgraduate researchers (Blog).
- Shepherd, J. (2022) What is Self-care. Voices of Academia (Blog).
- Shepherd, J. (2021). Equity of Instruction in the Social and Emotional Learning of Refugee and Migrant Students: A Scoping Review. Protocol Registration.
