Manijeh Badiee, Ph.D., was born in Ahvaz, Iran and moved to the U.S. at the age of five. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino. Dr. Badiee received her MA in counseling from St. Edwards University and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Due to her strong ties to Iran and her American upbringing, she has always been passionate about building connection between her two cultures.

Two themes have remained consistent in Dr. Badiee’s research and counseling practice: women’s empowerment and social justice. Her research on women’s empowerment has focused on Iranian women. She conducted a qualitative study in Tehran in 2008 on women who broke societal rules. Two years later, she was honored to receive the Hammed Shahidian Critical Feminist Award for this project at the Iranian Women’s Studies Foundation conference in Paris, France. For her doctoral dissertation, Dr. Badiee studied activists in the One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality. She was recognized with three prestigious national awards in 2012: the Illinois Qualitative Dissertation Award, Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) Barbara Kirk Award, and Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (CCPTP) Outstanding Graduate Student Award, for conducting research that addresses social justice and human rights concerns. She is using her dissertation findings as a basis to write a book about gender and women’s empowerment around the world. The book will be used as a supplementary textbook in psychology, sociology, and gender studies courses.