Ph.D., Human Development and Family Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
M.S., Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
B.A., Psychology, Lebanese American University

• BISPSY 337 Risk & Resilience
• BISPSY 220 Developmental Psychology

Dr. Abouzeid is Lebanese, born and raised in the ancient city of Byblos on the shores of the Mediterranean. She came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar to pursue graduate training in human development and family science. Her background spans developmental psychology, family science, quantitative methods, and clinical work with children and families. 

Dr. Abouzeid’s teaching interests include developmental psychology, risk and resilience, community psychology, and research methods. Her teaching emphasizes active and applied learning, encouraging students to connect psychological theory and research to their own lives and to broader social, cultural, and policy contexts. 

Dr. Abouzeid’s scholarship examines how children, adolescents, and families develop within the contexts of their relationships, communities, histories, and social environments. She is particularly interested in how place and time shape development—how neighborhoods, schools, community violence, structural inequality, and changing social conditions influence young people’s behavior and well-being. Her work also explores parent–child relationships and family processes in contexts of adversity, with an emphasis on resilience and the strengths that children, families, and communities draw upon. Dr. Abouzeid has a growing interest in extending this work to Lebanon and the broader region, examining development within culturally and historically grounded contexts.