Vice President, Research & Technical Assistance Director, Senior Research Associate 

Dr. Murrell is the Vice President and a Senior Research Associate at SPS. She holds several degrees in psychology including a Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology with a rural and indigenous emphasis. Dr. Murrell has worked in various capacities including mental health counseling, research, training development and education, and program evaluation. She thrives in working alongside others, co-creating, in a contextually grounded and capacity focused way that results in actionable plans and useable information.   

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Prior to working in evaluation, Dr. Murrell provided outpatient mental health services in both community and primary care settings. She utilizes the dual focus of her training and culmination of human services experiences to collaboratively design, implement, and document well-rounded and empirically-grounded evaluation.  

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Dr. Murrell has experience in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, data collection, and analysis. She is familiar with psychological, public health, and evaluation theories and approaches. Some of her skills and competencies include project management, reflective practice and supervision, measure design and assessment, sampling, reporting including written and verbal forms, presentations, and data visualization, and contextual and systematic analysis. Dr. Murrell is experienced in developing codebooks and coding themes, content analysis, using data analysis software including SPSS and NVivo, and using multivariate and applied statistics (descriptive, correlational, comparison of means, regression, non-parametric tests, inter-rater reliability). Her approach emphasizes cooperative, respectful relationships and informed decision-making balancing real-world practice and scientific rigor, to effectively and holistically plan and evaluate.  

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Dr. Murrell has worked at both state and national levels for prevention work addressing intimate partner violence and substance misuse and abuse. She is very interested in education, capacity building, and mentorship – particularly with emerging professionals and in under resourced communities. Dr. Murrell has instructed undergraduate courses, facilitated workforce development trainings, partnered with tribal colleges to develop apprentice-style curriculum, and provided training to early interventionists and researchers.  

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She has authored several research publications, a book chapter, and a poem. She enjoys gardening, and living in Anchorage, Alaska, means primarily indoor plants and perennials.  

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Particular areas of interest include outcomes research and evaluation, participatory and utilization-focused evaluation, attitudes and intentions towards help-seeking, prevention of child sexual abuse, patient/client satisfaction, capacity building, community readiness assessments, statewide and national initiatives, coalition building and support, and quasi- and non-experimental designs.