Rebecca Wells

Health Promotion & Behavior
Clinical Associate Professor
MSW/MPH Program Coordinator

Curriculum Vitae

Health Promotion & Behavior

Dr. Rebecca Wells is jointly appointed to the Department of Health Promotion & Behavior in the College of Public Health and the School of Social Work. She directs UGA’s Maternal & Child Health (MCH) Catalyst training program, UGA MCH LEEDS, and is the coordinator of the Master of Social Work-Master of Public Health program. Her professional experiences have been in disability and maternal and child health. As an educator, she seeks to support her students in acquiring knowledge, skills, and competencies that will help make the world a more just and inclusive place. Wells’ content expertise includes disability, maternal and child health, evaluation, healthcare, health policy, and interdisciplinary training. She has experience in service-learning and online teaching. In her courses, she employs a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach, incorporating active learning strategies and implementing problem-based learning methods to support her students in applying theory to practice. Through her role as the MCH LEEDS director and MSW-MPH program coordinator, Wells enjoys mentoring graduate students as they form an interprofessional identity.

Education
  • PhD, Public Health – Health Services & Policy Research, Georgia State University, 2018
  • MPH, Health Promotion, Education, & Behavior, University of South Carolina, 2014
  • MSW, Individuals & Families, University of South Carolina, 2014
  • BA, Sociology, Mercer University, 2010
More About

Clinical Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Georgia

Areas of Expertise
  • Maternal & child health
  • Disability
  • Inclusion
  • Accessibility
  • Public health social work
  • Evaluation
  • Health policy
Honors, Awards, and Achievements
  • Excellence in Mentorship and Student Success Award, UGA School of Social Work, 2024
  • Special Collections Library Fellow, UGA Special Collections, Libraries, 2024
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, UGA College of Public Health, 2021
  • Service-Learning Fellowship, UGA Office of Service-Learning, 2020
Affiliations
  • American Public Health Association
  • American Association on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
Course Instruction
  • HPRB 7240, Interprofessional Identity Development in the Health & Social Sciences
  • PBHL 7660, Internship in Public Health
  • PBHL 7560, Public Health Integrated Learning Experience Advisement
Research Interests
  • Health disparities
  • Access to care
  • Interprofessional education
  • Patient and family-centered approaches for children with special health care needs and adults with disabilities
Selected Publications

Cooper, Z. & Wells, R. (2024). Examining social work engagement in healthcare-focused interprofessional education: A scoping review. Journal of Social Work Education, 60,(3), 334-359. http://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2024.2352366

Robertson, K. & Wells, R. (2023). Black with ‘Baby Blues’: A systematic scoping review of programs to address postpartum depression in African American women. Maternal & Child Health Journal, 27,(3), 413–425. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03589-5

Henderson, S. & Wells, R. (2021). Environmental racism and the contamination of black lives: A literature review. Journal of African American Studies, 25(1), 134-151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-020-09511-5

Wells, R., Daniel, P., Barger, B., Rice, C. E., Bandlamudi, M., & Crimmins, D. (2020). Impact of medical home-consistent care and child condition on select health, community, and family level outcomes among children with special health care needs. Children’s Health Care, 50(2), 171–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/02739615.2020.1852085

Wells, R., Baumann, S., Graybill, E., Truscott, S., Crenshaw, M., & Crimmins, D. (2018). Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of e-Portfolios in an inclusive, graduate-level interdisciplinary training program. International Journal of ePortfolio, 8(2): 91-101.

News and Media Mentions