Loretta Pyles
- Professor, College of Integrated Health Sciences, School of Social Welfare, University at Albany (SUNY)
Contact Info
Biography —
Dr. Pyles has a Ph.D. in Social Work from University of Kansas (2005), an M.A. in Philosophy from University of Kansas (1994), and a B.A.. in Sociology and Philosophy from Baker University (1991). She was an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, Tulane University from 2005-2008. She joined School of Social Welfare at University at Albany in 2008, where she became a full Professor in 2017 and served as Director of the Doctoral Program from 2018-2021.
Education —
Research —
Professor Loretta Pyles is a critical social justice scholar concerned with transformative social change and integrative body-mind-spirit practice. Her scholarship has centered on the ways that individuals, organizations, and communities resist and respond to poverty, violence against women, racism, and disasters in a context of climate crisis, neoliberal global capitalism, and social welfare retrenchment. Her work on disasters has been funded by the National Science Foundation. She is the author of Progressive Community Organizing: Transformative Practice in a Globalizing World, 3rd ed. (Routledge, forthcoming) and Healing Justice: Holistic Self-Care for Change Makers (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is a certified yoga instructor and draws from mindfulness and embodied learning in her pedagogy. Her current research is focused on rewilding practices and movements in the context of climate change.