Sheila Peters

Dr. Sheila Peters is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in working with vulnerable child and adolescent populations. She exhibits her expertise in the areas of youth development, mental health interventions and juvenile justice program planning, evaluation, training and technical assistance. Dr. Peters has served as a consultant to the Gender-specific Programming for Girls Training and Technical Assistance funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) from October 1996 to present. She provides training in critical areas including gender-specific programming for girls, cultural competence, and mental health and juvenile justice issues.

Dr. Peters is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Fisk University. She coordinates the practicum program for the Clinical Psychology Masters program at Fisk University. Her research interests include the use of extracurricular activities in the promotion of prosocial behavior, the role of relationships in understanding the development of female juvenile delinquency, and resiliency in high risk adolescent populations. Dr. Peters is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A. with honors in Psychology) and Vanderbilt University (M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology). Her work experience includes serving as a staff psychologist for a secure juvenile justice facility with both a boys and girls unit, Coordinator of Community Services for the " I Have a Future" comprehensive adolescent health promotion program founded at Meharry Medical College, and as a consultant and supervisor of family coordinators to the Fast Track, conduct-disorder prevention program (Vanderbilt site). She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Developmental Psychopathology Training Program under the supervision of Kenneth Dodge at Vanderbilt University. In addition, she is a former Faculty Collaborator with the National Consortium on Violence Research (NCOVR). Her community civic activities include former president of the Nashville Branch of the NAACP, past chair of the Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County Human Relations Commission, Program chair of Tennessee Voices for Children, former commissioner for the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, board member of Mur-ci Homes, and board member of the Tennessee affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.