An outspoken approach An outspoken approach An outspoken approach

Gender-based violence thrives amid silence, secrecy and shame, says Carolyn West, a psychology professor at UW Tacoma. That is why she has built her career around studying and speaking publicly on topics of violence and sexual assault. “The only way to really change things is to not be silent about it,” she says.

Her appearances have included the talk show “Red Table Talk” in which she shared how families can help a loved-one in an abusive relationship, and the documentaries “Chris Brown: A History of Violence” and “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.” West was a featured consultant in the 2021 award-winning documentary “Subjects of Desire,” which focuses on Black women and their experiences with perceptions of beauty. She also shares her expertise on podcasts including “The Psychology of Black Womanhood,” “A Word … With Jason Johnson” and “Baggage Check.”

Mass media platforms allow West to discuss what domestic violence is, why survivors stay and what drives perpetrators. “It’s a way of stealthily educating people,” she says. “They’re thinking they’re watching something for entertainment, and then maybe it resonates. If I can say something where they recognize the domestic violence or the sexual assault in their lives or the lives of someone who is close to them, then that may prompt them to seek help.”

West, who is credited for creating the UW Tacoma psychology program, became interested in the subject of relationship violence as a pre-teen when she reading a book documenting the experiences of battered women. She studied psychology in college and completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1984.

In 1997, after her second post-doctoral fellowship, she was drawn to UW Tacoma when it was establishing its permanent campus in the city’s historic warehouse district. Today, in addition to teaching classes on topics like family violence, sexual deviance and the psychology of Black women, West studies the long-term consequences of intimate-partner violence and sexual assault as well as the hypersexualization of Black women and girls in the media. She also consults, trains and speaks on topics relating to intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

“Being a public intellectual means I take academic knowledge that is buried in journal articles and book chapters, and I help put it together in a way that it can be consumed and understood by the larger culture,” West says.

Fae Osborne, a psychology major, met West during her first quarter at UW Tacoma. She has worked with West as a pupil and teaching assistant. “She approaches her work with such joy and compassion that it’s easy to see how she became one of the most beloved professors at our institution,” Osborne says. “The courses she teaches engage with complex, difficult subjects that often affect students deeply, but she is always able to bring levity back to the room with her sharp sense of humor and willingness to be vulnerable. And when students do need extra care, she is more than willing to make time for them.”