Kristen J. Mills

Kristen J. Mills, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Program at The Ohio State University. Dr. Mills earned her degrees at Michigan State University in ecological-community psychology. She has three main research areas. First, she examines academic resilience, the process of positive adaptation in academic settings when exposed to adversity, among racially and ethnically minoritized students in secondary and higher education. Second, she investigates racial battle fatigue (i.e., the cumulative psychosocial and physiological impact of racism on People of Color) among Black students. Third, she examines the use of research evidence in education. Her research aims to strengthen practices and interventions that promote both academic success and well-being among traditionally underrepresented students. Her work is published in journals such as Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Black Psychology, Evidence and Policy, Educational Research Review, Educational Administration Quarterly, and American Journal of Community Psychology.

• Doctor of Philosophy, Psychology (Ecological-Community), Michigan State University, 2019
• Master of Arts, Psychology (Ecological-Community), Michigan State University, 2015
• Bachelor of Science, Psychology, Michigan State University, 2012

• Educational Achievement
  • Academic resilience among racially and ethnically minorized students
• Equity
  • Mobilizing institutional and community-based supports for minoritized students
  • Use of research evidence in education
• Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA)
  • Academic resilience among racially and ethnically minorized students
  • Racial battle fatigue among Black students

2022 – 2023    Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Shanna Jaggars), Scarlet & Gray Advantage Pilot. ($231,720)

2021 – 2023    Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Stephen Quaye), Using Photo-Elicitation to Investigate Racial Battle Fatigue among Black College Students. Student Academic Success Research (SASR) Grants Program, Office of Student Academic Success (OSAS), ODEE Digital Flagship, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), The Ohio State University (Awarded; $24,000).

2019 – 2020    Consultant, Academic Socialization and Support of Black Graduate Womxn in EHE. Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Research Initiative, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University (Awarded $938). 

Mills, K. J., Stone-Sabali. S., & Parler, B.A.*(in press). Responding to racial microaggressions: Resilience among Black undergraduate students. Journal of College Student Development.

Stone-Sabali, S., Mills, K. J., & Mallory, A. & alexander, e. (2023). Black Lives Matter and Other Signs of Solidarity: Perspectives from Black STEM Graduate Students. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21896

Collins-Warfield, A.E., Niewoehner-Green, J.E., Scheer, S.D, & Mills, K. J. (2023). Student-Ready Critical Care Pedagogy: An Empowering Approach for Struggling Students. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2249401

Stone-Sabali, S., Mallory, A. B., Mills, K. J., & Alexander, e. (2023). On racial allyship and constructing a racial allyship framework: Black graduate STEM students’ insights and recommendations for aspiring faculty allies. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000510

Collins-Warfield, A.E., Niewoehner-Green, J.E., Scheer, S.D, & Mills, K. J. (2023). Views of struggling students from historically excluded groups on academic success and instructor support. Journal of Postsecondary Student Success, 2(4), 53 - 82. https://doi.org/10.33009/fsop_jpss132518

Stone-Sabali, S., Bernard, D. L., Mills, K. J., & Osborn, P. R.* (2023). Mapping the evolution of the impostor phenomenon research: A bibliometric analysis. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04201-9 

Mills, K. J. (2021). Black students’ perceptions of campus climates and the effect on academic resilience. Journal of Black Psychology, 47(4-5), 354-383. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984211001195

Mills, K. J. (2020). “It’s Systemic”: Environmental racial microaggressions experienced by Black undergraduates at a predominantly white institution. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 13(1), 44-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000121

Mills, K. J., Lawlor, J. A., Neal, J. W., Neal, Z. P., & McAlindon, K. (2020). What is research? Educators’ conceptions and alignment with U.S. federal policy. Evidence and Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 16(3), 337-358. https://doi.org/10.1332/174426419X15468576296175

Neal, J. W., Neal, Z. P., Mills, K. J., Lawlor, J. A., & McAlindon, K. (2019). What types of brokerage bridge the research-practice gap? The case of public school educators. Social Networks, 59, 41-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2019.05.006

Lawlor, J., Mills, K. J., Neal, Z., Neal, J. W., Wilson, C., & McAlindon, K. (2019). Approaches to measuring use of research evidence in K-12 settings: A systematic review. Educational Research Review, 27, 218-228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.04.002

Neal, J. W., Mills, K. J., McAlindon, K., Neal, Z. P., & Lawlor, J. A. (2019). Multiple audiences for encouraging research use: Uncovering a typology of educators. Educational Administration Quarterly, 55(1), 154-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X18785867

McAlindon, K., Neal, J. W., Neal, Z. P., Mills, K. J., & Lawlor, J. (2019). The BOND Framework: A practical application of visual communication design and marketing to advance evaluation reporting. American Journal of Evaluation, 40(2), 291-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214018771219

Neal, Z. P., Lawlor, J. A., Neal, J. W., Mills, K. J., & McAlindon, K. (2019). Just Google it: Measuring schools' use of research evidence with internet search results. Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 15 (1), 103–23. https://doi.org/10.1332/174426418X15172392413087

Neal, Z. P., Neal, J. W., Mills, K. J., & Lawlor, J. A. (2018). Making or buying evidence:  Using transaction cost economics to understand decision making in public school districts. Evidence and Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 14(4), 707 - 724. https://doi.org/10.1332/174426416X14778277473701

Neal, J. W., Neal, Z. P., Lawlor, J. A., Mills, K. J., & McAlindon, K. (2018). What makes research useful for public school educators?. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 45 (3), 432-446. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-017-0834-x

Mills. K. J., Quaye, S.J., McKinney*, N.J., Jones*, H.V.*, Allen-Stills, N.* (2023, April).  How Racial Battle Fatigue Impacts Black Women Graduate Students: A Photo-Elicitation Study. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.

Mills. K. J., Quaye, S.J., McKinney*, N.J., Jones*, H.V.*, Allen-Stills, N.* (2022, November).  Investigating racial battle fatigue among Black college students using photo-elicitation methodology. Paper presented at the 47th Annual Association for the Study of Higher Education Conference, Las Vegas, NV.

Mills, K.J., Parler, B.A.* (2022, April). Responding to Racial Microaggressions: Resilience Among Black Undergraduate Students.Paper presented at American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA. 

Mills, K. J. (2020, November; Virtual due to COVID-19). Racial battle fatigue among Black students: Exploring the role of campus climate and civic engagement. Paper presented at the 45th Annual Association for the Study of Higher Education Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Mills, K. J. (2020, August; Virtual due to COVID-19). How is campus climate associated with racial battle fatigue? Paper Presented at American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington D.C., USA.

Mills, K. J. (2020, April; Canceled due to COVID-19) Trials of triumph: Campus climate and academic resilience among Black college students. Paper presented at American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Williams, K. N., Edwards, D., Supple, A., Johnson, D. J., Mills, K. J., & Yoon, J. (2020, March; Canceled due to COVID-19) Autonomy support, family identity, and resilience in African American college women. Poster presented at Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting, San Diego, CA, USA.

Neal, J. W., Neal, Z. P., Mills, K. J., Lawlor, J. A., & McAlindon, K. (2019, March). Knowing who to ask: Educators’ use of network brokers to learn about social skills programs. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Conference, Baltimore, MA.

Causey, S., Supple, A., Johnson, D. J., Edwards, D., Williams, K., Mills, K. J., Yoon, J., & Coard, S. (2019, March). Examining the relationship between resilience, racial identity, and racial socialization in collegiate women of color. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Conference, Baltimore, MA.

Neal, J. W., Neal, Z. P., Lawlor, J. A., Mills, K. J., & McAlindon, K. (2018, August). Tracking public school educators' search for information using a small world survey. Paper presented at the International Network for Social Network Analysis Sunbelt Social Networks Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Neal, J. W., Mills, K. J., McAlindon, K., Neal, Z. P., & Lawlor, J. A. (2018, April). Multiple audiences for encouraging research use: Uncovering a typology of educators. Paper presented at the 2018 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, New York City, New York.