Mala Matacin

Education

PhD, University of Cincinnati

MA, University of Cincinnati

BA, University of Santa Clara

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Mala Matacin has a PhD in Social Psychology with postdoctoral training in Behavioral and Preventive Medicine. Her research focuses on women’s health (primarily issues of body image and stress) and women’s leadership. With her interest in gender issues, Dr. Matacin designed and teaches a popular University honors course called “Women, Weight, and Worry” and a first year seminar entitled, “Beauty, Body Image, and Feminism.” She is the founder and faculty advisor for “Women for Change” whose mission is to provide a space for education and support for women in regard to feminism and body image issues. In 1999, she was given an “Outstanding Teacher Award”. In 2010, she was awarded with the “Excellence in Service to Students” for going “above and beyond” work with students. This award was given by Sigma Alpha Pi, the National Society for Leadership and Success. In a 2009 post-graduation survey done by the Career Center, Dr. Matacin was named one of the three top faculty members in the entire University of Hartford community as a faculty member who had a major / positive impact on students’ University of Hartford experience.

Matacin has been awarded two grants from the Women’s Education and Leadership Fund (WELFund) at the University of Hartford to:

• Support her work in “Women for Change”; and
• To enhance the education of women and cultivate their leadership skills by initiating an innovative collaboration between the University of Hartford and the Hartford Seminary.