M. Ellen Mitchell

M. Ellen Mitchell, Ph.D., is a Full Professor Emerita and former Interim Dean of the Lewis College of Human Sciences, and Dean/Director of the College of Psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology.  She joined IIT in 1987, establishing a practicum placement system and teaching a wide range of courses for the clinical psychology doctoral program. She became the Dean of then Institute of Psychology in 1996, and transitioned to Dean of the Lewis College of Human Sciences in 2012.  She retired in 2020.

Research Interests and Awards

Author of an edited volume on human issues in nanotechnology, numerous articles, and more than 100 professional presentations on a wide range of topics, the preponderance of her research and publications focused on interpersonal relationships as a moderator of health and mental health outcomes, person variables associated with internet use, and human issues in emerging technologies. Mitchell was the recipient of the Lewis College award for excellence in teaching twice, the Julia Beveridge award (the highest honor awarded to an IIT woman), and received public citation in 2014 from the President of the American Psychological Association for her for Leadership, Scholarship, and Service to the Profession.

Education

BA Hamilton/Kirkland College 
Ph.D. University of Tennessee Knoxville 
Clinical Internship Yale School of Medicine

Professional Activities

In addition to substantial fundraising for IIT, including the establishment of the first endowed chair for psychology, Mitchell developed a distinguished Board of Overseers for the College, launched a consulting enterprise, the IIT Center for Research and Service, co-authored and implemented a plan for the now highly endowed  IIT Leadership Academy, initiated a program for talented students facing academic failure, and was key on the joint project with the Galvin Library project known as Voices of the Holocaust, that resulted in a major web archive and a partnership with The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center featuring the 1946 recordings of displaced persons made by former faculty member David P. Boder. As well, she built the research volume in her college. Under her leadership, one of the psychology programs achieved top ten US News and World Report ranking, a second program came to be ranked in the top twenty, and two separate accrediting processes were supported.  She served as Consulting Editor, Journal of Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology from 1993-2004. Mitchell was a long term member of the Executive Board of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, serving as secretary for many years and Chair 2010-2011.