Walker Ladd

Previously a professional modern dancer with a BA and MFA in dance from UCLA, Walker returned to school to receive an MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University Seattle in 2000. She practiced as a Couples and Family Therapist and earned her Ph.D. in psychology from Sofia University/Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in 2014.

Dr. Walker Ladd has been a faculty member at Saybrook University since 2018 and currently serves as Chair of the Department of Research. The Department of Research is an interdisciplinary academic department that provides university-wide foundational and advanced research curricula to graduate and doctoral students in both the College of Social Sciences (CSS) and the College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences (CIMHS). The university-wide Saybrook research curriculum prepares students to complete research elements in their degree programs, such as the Ph.D. dissertation and master's project, to contribute to their academic careers and communities.

As an innovative academic leader, Dr. Ladd has pioneered the development of the Saybrook Specialization in Teaching and Advanced Research (STAR) program, an academic specialization designed for university learners who seek to transform their fields and communities in pursuit of academic careers. The STAR program offers innovative, learner-centered, skill-based courses in teaching, grant writing, curriculum design, and academic publication to prepare learners for professional and scholarly success.

As a qualitative researcher and educator, Dr. Ladd has been teaching and creating research curricula for nearly a decade. Her teaching has included advanced hermeneutic phenomenology, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, heuristic inquiry, constructivist and Straussian grounded theory, and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). She has served as an editor for The Qualitative Report since 2020.

Dr. Ladd has an established research portfolio regarding perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. She has a record of published research regarding the stigma of mental illness for new mothers with bipolar disorder (Ladd, 2018) and the meaning of postpartum depression for women in later life (Ladd, 2021). She co-published a hermeneutic phenomenological study regarding the experience of postpartum anxiety during COVID-19 (Ladd & DeDecker, 2022). She most recently conducted a constructivist grounded theory study on the experience of compassion among birth doulas practicing in hospitals (DeDecker & Ladd, 2024). She is currently working on a qualitative study with Dr. DeDecker, examining the lived experience of provider-recommended induction for nulliparous women over 35, using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Her award-winning book "Transformed by Postpartum Depression: Women's Stories of Trauma and Growth" (Praeclarus, 2020) was based on her grounded theory study of the trauma and nature of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and subsequent posttraumatic growth for 25 women.

Her honors include the Saybrook Faculty Excellence Award (22-23) and a postgraduate certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from Cornell University. She is currently pursuing her fifth degree, an Ed.M. in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Graduate School of Education, Policy, and Leadership.