Michele Wick

Michele Wick studies the human side of climate change through an interdisciplinary lens. Her inquiry focuses on several issues raised by the American Psychological Association’s task force on global climate change including:

• how people understand the risks imposed by climate change 
• behavioral contributions to climate change and their psychological/ contextual drivers
• the psychosocial impacts of climate change
• how individuals adapt to and cope with perceived threats and impacts
• psychological barriers that limit climate change action

Wick also follows the science of science communication and her writing often translates psychological research into narrative for the general public. Her blog, Anthropocene Mind, at Psychology Today, is one forum for this work.

Recently, Wick began co-chairing Arts Afield, a new program that fosters collaboration across the arts, humanities and sciences at Smith’s Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station.

Wick began her career in psychology as a clinician with a specialty in college mental health. She earned her doctorate in counseling psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and she is a licensed clinical psychologist in the State of Massachusetts.