About Sherry Hamby

Sherry Hamby is Director of Life Paths Research Program, Research Professor of Psychology at the University of the South, and founding editor of the American Psychological Association journal Psychology of Violence.

A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Hamby has worked for more than 20 years on the problem of violence, including front-line crisis intervention and treatment, involvement in grassroots organizations, and research leading to the publication of more than 150 articles and books. She is best known for her work on poly-victimization and developing measures of violence. Dr. Hamby is part of the team that conducts the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, which is the U.S.’s primary surveillance mechanism for youth victimization and the source of the most up-to-date and comprehensive statistics on the co-occurrence among different forms of youth violence.

Her current work focuses on resilience, especially the under-appreciated strengths of rural Appalachians, where she has multi-generational roots, and other disadvantaged communities.

She conducted the first reservation-based study of domestic violence among American Indians and collaborated on Sortir Ensemble et Se Respecter, the first Swiss dating violence prevention program. Her research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, the John Templeton Foundation, and numerous other agencies.  She has served on numerous advisory boards, including the Board of Scientific Counselors at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Control & Prevention.  Her awards include the 2017 Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the Trauma Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and selection in 2013 as a “Woman Making an Impact on Children’s Exposure to Violence” by the Safe Start National Resource Center, among other recognitions.

Dr. Hamby’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Psychology Today, and hundreds of other media outlets.  Her most recent book is Battered Women’s Protective Strategies:  Stronger Than You Know (Oxford University Press, 2014). Dr. Hamby completed her education at the College of William & Mary (B.S., M.A.) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology). She lives in Tennessee with her husband and two children.