Jonathan N Livingston
Dr. Livingston received his doctorate in community psychology. Prior to attending Michigan State, he received a master’s in African and African American psychology at Florida A&M University. His areas of interest are African American psychological well-being and the cumulative effects of racism and social inequalities on African American mental health and health disparities. Additional areas of interest include program evaluation, community development, and education reform.
Dr. Livingston’s current research focuses on social and psychological factors associated with positive health and mental health outcomes for African Americans. Also, he has served as director of outreach for the Export Grant, a project of the Julius Chambers Biomedical Bio-technical Research Institute, evaluating the effectiveness of their efforts to reduce health disparities and educate the African American community about alcohol and substance abuse, cancer and cardiovascular disease risk factors. He has also served as co-director of the North Carolina Central University Institute for Children, Youth and Family at NCCU and served as a senior research fellow at Johnson C. Smith University, Smith Institute for Applied Research. He is also currently co-principal investigator on the Duke NCCU partnership investigating the use of ethno-drama to address health disparities among low-income communities of color.
Dr. Livingston has taught classes in community, personality, and adolescent psychology, research methodology, statistics, and human growth and development. In 2001, he received the Excellence in Teaching Award from Michigan State University, and in 2009, he received the Excellence in Teaching Award at NCCU. In 2019, he received the NCCU Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching in North Carolina. He was also a finalist for the Best HBCU Male faculty in the U.S in 2019. In 2022, he was named the Benjamin S Ruffin Distinguished Professor of Civic Education and Social Justice.
Also, while at NCCU, he has assisted in securing over 20.3 million in grant money from federal and state agencies. Dr. Livingston has mentored and aided over 30 students in entering and completing doctorial training at the top Ph.D. programs around the U.S. He has authored and co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and newspaper articles on race, psychology, mental health, health disparities, and education as well as presented his research at several national and international conferences.