Wallis Adams, PhD Faculty Profile

Photo of Wallis Adams

Wallis  Adams, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Sociology

I am a medical sociologist focused on health equity, the health workforce, and community knowledge. Much of my research focuses on the professionalization and expansion of the peer support field in mental healthcare. My work has been published in Social Science and Medicine, APMHSMHR, Psychiatric Services, Society and Mental Health, Sociology of Health and Illness, and other journals. I teach Medical Sociology, Sociology of Mental Health, Research Methods, Capstone, and Professional Development. I joined CSUEB in the 2020-2021 academic year, and am committed to student success. 

Sociology of Mental Health; Medical Sociology; Public Health; Health Services; Health Equity; Experiential Expertise and Community Knowledge; Community-Involved Mixed-Methods Research

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston University
  • Ph.D., Sociology, Northeastern University
  • M.P.H. (Master of Public Health), California State University, Northridge
  • B.A., Gender Studies, Oberlin College

Not teaching this semester.

Adams, W., Duquette, R., de Wet, A., & Rogers, E. 2023. Competing Allegiance in an Unclear Role: Peer and Non-Peer Understandings of Peer Support in Massachusetts. SSM - Mental Health.

Adams, W., Rogers, E., McKnight, L, & Lynde, D. 2023. Examination of Adaptations to the Evidence-Based Supported Employment Model: Individual Placement and Support. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. 

Adams, W., Rogers, E., Edwards, J., Lord, E., McKnight, L, &Barbone, M. 2022. The Impact of COVID-19 on Peer Support Specialists in the US: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Online Survey. Psychiatric Services. 

Adams, W., & Lincoln, A. 2021. Barriers and Facilitators of Implementing Peer Support Services for Criminal-Justice Involved Individuals. Psychiatric Services. 

Lincoln, A., Eyllon, M., Prener, C., Garverich, S., Griffith, J., Adams, W... & Paasche-Orlow, M. 2021. Prevalence and Predictors of Limited Literacy in Public Mental Healthcare. Community Mental Health Journal. 

Adams, W. 2020. Unintended Consequences of Institutionalizing Peer Support Work in Mental Healthcare. Social Science & Medicine.

Scoglio, A., Adams, W., & Lincoln, A. (2020). Meaning and Management of Multiple Medications among Public Mental Health Service Users. Community Mental Health Journal, 56(2): 313-321

Adams, W., & Lincoln, A. (In Press). Forensic Peer Specialists: Training, Employment and Lived Experience. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal.

Lincoln, A., Adams, W., Eyllon, M., Garverich, S, Prener, C., Griffith, J., Paasche-Orlow, M., & Hopper, K. (2017). The Double Stigma of Limited Literacy and Mental Illness: Examining barriers to recovery and participation among public mental health services users.  Society and Mental Health, 7(3): 121-141.

Guzzardo, M., Adams, W., Todorova, I., & Falcon, L. (2017). Harmonizing traditional beliefs with new realities: Social support experiences of Puerto Ricans with disabilities. Sage Open, 7(2).

Lincoln, A., & Adams, W. (2016). “Understandings of community among people using publicly funded community mental health services”. Book Chapter in Advances in Medical Sociology, Vol. 17: 50 Years after Deinstitutionalization: Mental Illness in Contemporary Communities, Ed. Brea Perry. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Guzzardo, M., Adams, W., Todorova, I., & Falcon, L. (2016). Resonating sentiments on Puerto Rican identity through poetry: Voices of the Diaspora. Qualitative Inquiry, 22(5): 428-443.

Guzzardo, M., Todorova, I., Adams, W., & Falcon, L. (2016). “Half here, half there”: Dialogical selves among older Puerto Ricans of the Diaspora. Journal of Constructive Psychology, 29(1): 51-65.

Adams, W., Todorova, I., Guzzardo, M., & Falcon, L. (2015). “The problem here is that they want to solve everything with pills”: Medication use and identity among Mainland Puerto Ricans. Sociology of Health and Illness, 37(6): 904-919.

Adams, W., Todorova, I., & Falcon, L.  (2015). Puerto Rican Victimization and Crime on the Mainland: The Role of Acculturation. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 37(1): 59-74.

Todorova, I., Guzzardo, M., Adams, W., & Falcon, L. (2015). Gratitude and Longing: Meanings of Health in Aging for Puerto Rican Adults in the Mainland.  Journal of Health Psychology, 20(12): 1602-1612.