Michelle Marzullo
Professor and Program Chair
Human Sexuality
School of Consciousness and Transformation
PhD, American University, Washington, DC
MA, San Francisco State University; BA, Western Connecticut State University
Michelle A. Marzullo, Ph.D. is a practicing anthropologist specializing in critical sexuality studies. She is Chair and Professor for the Human Sexuality PhD Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), leading only the second fully accredited PhD program in the U.S. Dr. Marzullo leverages her position to be a convener of academics and advocates fostering a critical sexuality studies lens to center issues of power as these relate to sexuality, sex, and gender.
Her research interests span four main areas: 1. LGBTQ access to higher education; 2. artificial intelligence and sexual & reproductive health; 3. workplace diversity and inclusion; and 4. sexuality, marriage, and economics in the U.S. She is a mixed methodologist utilizing standard qualitative approaches such as interviews and focus groups; language and discourse analysis; and quantitative approaches to triangulate data sources for answering transdisciplinary questions.
She has engaged a wide range of studies including policy, programmatic, public health, organizational effectiveness and marketing research with Fortune 100 companies. Notable organizations she has engaged with include Ernst & Young, the Point Foundation, International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration through Rescue Social Change Group, Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Child Welfare League of America, Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research, California Department of Public Health’s Program Development and Evaluation Unit (CDPH) through the Sequoia Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through Partnership for Prevention, the California Gay Straight Alliance Policy Project, National Sexuality Resource Center, and Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality.
Past research projects include: examining the impact of neoliberalism on decisions to marry in the U.S.; the generational uptick in support for the U.S. marriage equality movement; evaluating tobacco prevention health communications national campaigns aimed at youth, multicultural teens and LGBT young adults; youth experiences in a Gay-Straight Alliance High School Club; LGBT youth experiences in the U.S. foster care system; HIV/AIDS treatment effectiveness; evaluating tobacco prevention health communications national campaigns aimed at youth, multicultural teens and LGBTQ+ young adults; the effects of tobacco exposure on reproduction; youth experiences in a Gay-Straight Alliance High School Club. She also has subject matter expertise in the areas of Diversity and Inclusiveness, the Affordable Care Act, talent selection, succession planning, workforce planning and organizational design projects for transactions (M&A) and transformations through her work at Ernst & Young (EY).
In addition to her research, Dr. Marzullo has taught at both public and private universities. She has developed and delivered professional curricula and workshops in corporate learning and development (L&D) settings. She has also worked with program and project stakeholders, such as those with decision-making authority (Boards of Directors, Presidents, Executive Directors, Scientific and Business Advisory Boards, etc.), statisticians, interdisciplinary global teams, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), web developers, proofreaders, programming/analytics teams, designers, social media specialists, and laboratory staff.
She has managed multiple, overlapping projects throughout all stages of the research process, including: designing research protocols, questionnaires and facilitator guides; obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approvals; monitoring field data collection; cleaning and coding data; devising analysis plans (descriptive and inferential); working with programmers/statisticians; developing final reports; and, delivering client presentations in various formats from presentation decks to topline/executive summaries using infographics. Experience conducting online surveys, including monitoring with Google Analytics, use of Facebook Interest-Based-Targeting to drive survey responses, and development of Online Survey Development SOPs for technology partners.
Dr. Marzullo holds a PhD in Anthropology concentrating in race, gender and social justice from American University in Washington DC, a Master’s degree in Human Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology/minor in Sociology from Western Connecticut State University. She is honored to be a past recipient of the American University College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship, a Point Foundation Scholarship, the St. Clair Drake Grant from the Society for the Anthropology of North America (SANA), the Carlos Enrique Cisneros Scholarship for LGBT students of distinction attending American University, Genentech’s Out & Equal Scholarship, and the Grant Larsen Fellowship at San Francisco State University. Dr. Marzullo has been featured on CNN, in the Washington Post, the Advocate and regularly provides expert advice to various media requests.
