Dr. Joy Drinnon is Professor of Psychology and the Director of Undergraduate Research, where her research specializes in forgiveness and other social attitudes.

Dr. Drinnon considers her contributions to the Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness, including writing grants and assisting with their annual census, over the past 20 years to be her most significant research. She also developed and published a scale to measure forgiveness for her dissertation and has published research with students on alcohol use and political in-group biases.

At Milligan, Dr. Drinnon oversees the campus-wide undergraduate research program helping students pursue independent research opportunities. She advises psychology majors and teaches courses in the Master of Counseling program. She particularly appreciates the community at Milligan and cherishes the meaningful conversations she has had with students and coworkers over the years.

Dr. Drinnon’s faith journey is foundational to her research and approach to education. For Drinnon, Christ’s mandate to forgive one another inspires her to teach a faith-integration course for graduate students. She loves teaching future counselors the power of forgiveness and how research backs up the promises of forgiveness found in Scripture.

Education:
BS, Psychology, East Tennessee State University
PhD, The University of Tennessee