Dr. Susan M. Swearer earned her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1997. She has been a school psychology faculty member at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln since that time. Her dissertation research examined the comorbidity of depression and conduct disorder in adolescence and laid the foundation for her research on bullying behaviors.
In 1998, she started the Target Bullying Research project. Her research on bullying behaviors among school-aged youth has examined the correlates and consequences of bullying with the goal of helping students, school personnel, and parents end the bullying dynamic. The Target Bullying project has also shed light on the important mental health connections underlying bullying and victimization. As a licensed psychologist, her clinical work and research led to the development of the Target Bullying Intervention Program (T-BIP), an individualized cognitive-behavioral approach to working with youth who bully others. The T-BIP intervention research is ongoing.
In 2006, Dr. Swearer co-founded the Bullying Research Network (BRNET), a virtual clearinghouse that connects international bullying researchers and aims to disseminate recent literature. For more information about BRNET, please visit the website.
In 2012, Swearer received grant support from the Andrew Gomez Dream Foundation to collaborate with the Paul Mitchell network of cosmetology schools to develop a social-emotional curriculum targeting self-empowerment, anti-bullying, and healthy relationships. This project served as the catalyst for founding the Empowerment Initiative in 2013, which focused on understanding the factors needed to create conditions antithetical to bullying, like kindness and bravery. Her research lab designs and implements translational research that advances our understanding of the individual, social, and societal factors necessary to create healthy environments that support children, youth, families, and schools.
In 2012, Swearer became involved with the Born This Way Foundation and the Born Brave Experiences (BBE) study. The objectives of this line of research are to determine the factors that influence youth engagement and to evaluate the impact of participating in four national activations: (1) The Born Brave Bus; (2) Lady Gaga concert events; (3) The Born Brave Nations; and (4) the Born This Way Foundation website. We are particularly interested in the factors that youth need to be positively engaged and how empowerment and engagement are sustained over time, ultimately creating a kinder and braver world.
In 2024, Swearer received grant support from the Moran Family Foundation to develop an online support group for victims of bullying. The Bullying, Empowerment, and Learning Online Network Group, also known as BELONG, is a free virtual group program provided by supervised trained facilitators for middle school students, grades 6-8, who have experienced bullying. These groups and data collection began in 2025 and will continue for three years.