Christi Bamford - Professional Experience

Co-Active Coaching Practitioner (CAP)

Professor Emerita of Psychology

Ph.D., Developmental Psychology

After more than 20 years in academia, I’ve learned that titles and credentials matter far less than what you do and who you are in any given moment. What I most value from my career journey are the people I got to work with, including students developing their skills, faculty navigating their careers, and leaders figuring things out as they went. Today, I’ve traded my academic hat for a coaching and consulting career grounded in the science of positive psychology and the principles and skills of ICF coaching.

Professional Roles

Professor Emerita of Psychology

2026-present

Jacksonville University

In 2025 the university went through a reorganization, and I volunteered to retire early so they could reduce the number of involuntary layoffs by one position. I was looking to grow in a new direction anyway, so I took the leap into coaching and consulting work. This spring my colleagues nominated me for the title of Emeritus Faculty, and our Provost and President approved. It is an honor to remain part of the community in an unofficial capacity.

Director, School of Social Sciences & Education

2021-2023

Jacksonville University

In July 2021 my colleagues elected me as chair of the newly formed School of Social Sciences and Education. My primary role was to represent the faculty to the dean and administration, but locally I coordinated scheduling, budgets, payroll, building and program issues, conducted faculty & staff evaluations, oversaw curriculum and program changes, and addressed student and faculty complaints. By far my favorite part of this role was the opportunity to advocate for my colleagues and to let administrators know about their incredible contributions in teaching, service, and research.

Professor of Psychology

2010-2025

Jacksonville University

As a professor, I had three general areas of responsibility: Teaching, Research, and Service

Teaching: I taught 4 to 5 courses per term, including Introductory Psychology, Human Growth and Development, Critical Thinking and Writing in Psychology, Research Methods II (Applications), Positive Psychology, and Psychology of Religion. We had a small department, so by necessity I was more of a generalist in my teaching, and I loved that.

Research: My personal research projects addressed children's knowledge about emotion and religion or positive thinking. I also (with my colleague Dr. Kristin Lagattuta) developed a measure of optimism, called the Future Expectations Task, for children under the age of 8. It is now on Open Science Framework for anyone who studies children and needs a measure of optimism. In addition to my own research I supervised student research projects, both in independent studies and in my Research Methods course, where students conduct a series studies from beginning to end, including data collection and analysis, and presenting the results in an APA formatted paper.

Service: As a faculty member I participated in shared governance in the forms of committee work and my work within our chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Locally to my department I advised and mentor students, coordinated the schedule of courses, developed curriculum proposals, conducted assessment, and advised on curricular matters related to my areas of expertise. I served on numerous departmental, division, and university-wide committees and chaired several of them, including Faculty Affairs, the University's Academic Integrity Board, and several search committees. For many years I also served as the chair of the psychology department and as the Director of the School of Social Sciences and Education.

Academic Journey

Ph.D., Psychology

2009

University of California, Davis

For my dissertation I looked at the development of children’s knowledge that thinking positive thoughts would lead to better emotions than thinking negative ones. It turns out that they do understand this from a very early age (kindergarten), as they accurately predicted that people would feel better when thinking on the bright side in positive, negative, and ambiguous scenarios. They were reasonable about it, too, and didn’t predict that a person would feel good when reframing a negative event, just a little better than if they thought negatively.

I also wanted to see how how individual differences in optimism might affect this understanding, but at the time there were no measures of optimism for children younger than age 8, so I set out to develop one. The result of that effort is now available on Open Science Framework for anyone who studies children and needs a measure of optimism.

M. A., Psychology

2005

University of California, Davis

For my masters thesis, I blended my love of psychology with my background in the academic study of religion. Specifically, I looked at children's understanding of prayer as a coping mechanism and as communicating with an agent, as opposed to a form of wishing or hoping for something to happen. I found that they did indeed understand that prayer was different from wishing, that it involved another agent (in this case, God) and that by the age of 8 children from religious households were using it as a cognitive coping strategy.

Graduate Diploma in Hebrew & Jewish Studies.

2002

Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies (UK)

For my OCHJS dissertation (equivalent of a US masters thesis) I researched the practice of solar worship in ancient Israelite popular religion. Of course, the central religion forbade any worship of a deity besides YHWH, but as with many things that were prohibited by the priests and prophets, there is evidence both within the biblical text and the archeological record that something more interesting was happening on the ground. (On a very basic level, you wouldn't have prohibitions against things that people weren't doing.)

I was honored by the Award for "Best Dissertation" in my cohort for this research.

M.A., Religion

2002

B.A. , Psychology & Religion

1998

University of Georgia

My first graduate program was in the academic study of religion (ancient near east) at the University of Georgia, where I studied the various ways that the ancient Israelite authors addressed the dilemma of “no man can see God and live” when describing human-divine interactions. There were three theological and literary traditions which respectively referred to “the Name,” the “Glory,” or “the Messenger” in various God-sightings within the Hebrew text.

Publications

Bamford, C., & Lagattuta, K. (2020). Optimism and wishful thinking: Consistency across populations in children’s expectations for the future. Child Development, 91(4), 1057-1394, e743-e1011.

Lagattuta, K., Sayfan, L., & Bamford, C. (2012). Do you know how I feel? Parents underestimate worry and overestimate optimism compared to child self-report. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 113(2), 211-232.

Bamford, C., & Lagattuta, K. (2012). Looking on the bright side: Children’s knowledge about the benefits of positive versus negative thinking. Child Development, 83(2), 667-682.

Sensiper, S., Mauldon, J., & Bamford, C. (2011). Alternative proposals for a new foster family home rate structure in California: A report prepared for the California Department of Social Services March 2011. Center for Public Policy Research, University of California, Davis.

Bamford, C. & Lagattuta, K. H. (2010). A new look at children’s understanding of mind and emotion: The case of prayer. Developmental Psychology, 46(1), 78-92.

Bamford, C. (2002). Solar Worship in Ancient Israel. Dissertation submitted for completion of the Graduate Diploma in Jewish Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Awarded for Best Dissertation.

Bamford, C. (2001). Seeing God in the Hebrew Bible: The Name, The Glory, and The Messenger. Thesis submitted for completion of the masters degree in religion at the University of Georgia.

Nevertheless, she persisted.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse