Dr. Connie Beck’s teaching and research focuses on the ways our legal system creates or exacerbates psychological distress for those who work within it and use it and on developing policies and procedures to minimize that distress. She has investigated short- and long-term outcomes for divorcing/separating couples mediating their disputes, with a focus on couples with intimate partner violence. She is also investigating risk and protective factors for families returning to the child welfare system, and individuals returning to the involuntary commitment process. Her prior work focused on distress in practicing attorneys but more recent work includes assessing distress and resilience in law students. Dr. Beck is the co-author of numerous articles and two books, Family Mediation: Facts, Myths and Future Prospects and Family Evaluation in Custody Litigation: A Practical, Structured and Transparent Approach.

Before joining UWT, for 19 years Dr. Beck was a professor at the University of Arizona and there taught courses in clinical and forensic psychology, ethics and the psychology of divorce. She is also a first-generation college student born and raised in Spokane, Washington. She loves exploring again her home state and other countries; when home she enjoys cooking, entertaining friends and family, and riding motorcycles.