Gabriel N. Ezema
Assistant Professor, Counseling Psychology
901.492.1350Ball Hall 303Dgnezema@memphis.eduAbout Dr. Ezema
Gabriel N. Ezema, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Research at the University of Memphis. He earned his PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Dr. Ezema’s research examines work as a social determinant of health, with a focus on how economic inequality, labor market barriers, and institutional conditions shape vocational development, psychological wellbeing, and access to dignified work. Grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT), his work investigates how social and labor systems influence opportunity, engagement, and long-term health across diverse communities. Building on this foundation, his emerging dignity-centered scholarship examines how institutions communicate signals of human worth and how individuals interpret these signals through dignity appraisal processes. This work informs his emerging Dignity-Regulation Theory (DRT), which explains how institutional signals shape dignity, belonging, identity threat, and access to opportunity across educational, work, and community contexts.
He directs the Work, Dignity, and Health Lab, which advances community-based, cross-cultural, and theory-driven research aimed at expanding access to decent work, strengthening institutional belonging, and promoting human flourishing.
Dr. Ezema’s teaching and supervision emphasize culturally responsive practice, reflective clinical judgment, ethical responsibility, and the development of socially responsive clinicians.
With interdisciplinary training in philosophy, theology, and psychology, and over two decades of service as a Catholic priest, Dr. Ezema brings a perspective grounded in cultural humility, community engagement, and a sustained commitment to the dignity of marginalized populations.
Dr. Ezema serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, The Counseling Psychologist, and the Journal of Career Assessment, and is an active member of the American Psychological Association.
For more information about his research, teaching, publications, and the Work, Dignity, and Health Lab, please visit his personal website: www.gabrielnnamdiezema.com
Education
Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
M.A. Mental Health Counseling, Boston College
M.A. Theology and Ministry, Boston College
Bachelor of Theology, Pontifical Urbania University, Rome, Italy
Bachelor of Philosophy, Pontifical Urbania University, Rome, Italy
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, University of Ibadan, Nigeria