Dr. Marquisha Lawrence Scott
ABOUT
Marquisha Lawrence Scott, PhD, MSW, MDiv, is a tenured associate professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She studies religion, community, and congregational life with a macro lens. Her central question is how the institutions people trust can get real resources to the people who need them.
Her work holds two things together. She looks closely at the inner life of communities and organizations: the memory, grief, loyalty, and conflict that shape how decisions get made. She also keeps asking the material question: whether money, food, housing, and power actually reach people. Her research on congregations and poverty alleviation treats care for community as something that has to be material, not only spiritual.
As a futurist focused on Black Church futures, Scott plans with clear eyes. Oppression is not a closed chapter, and institutions that have harmed marginalized people will not change because we hope they will. Her work pushes congregations and their partners to stop waiting and get people what they need. Her next phase moves this research into policy and practice.
Scott speaks and consults with congregations and organizations navigating change.
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Experience
Associate professor, University of Denver Graduate School of Social work
September 2025 - Present
Scott studies how religious congregations and community institutions shape people’s material lives. She draws on Afrofuturist, feminist, and mediating structures theories, and she treats congregations as organizations. That means looking at how they hold memory and grief, how they decide about buildings and money, and how they can move resources into their neighborhoods. Her current work looks at Black Church futures and congregational decision-making. She teaches Community & Organizational Change: Theory for Practice; Power, Privilege, & Oppression; Spirituality & Social Work; and Critical Approaches to Facilitating and Teaching: Anti-racist, Feminist, and Queer Pedagogies.
Assistant professor, University of Denver Graduate School of Social work
September 2019 - August 2025
As an assistant professor, Scott focused on building her career as a scholar and educator. Her research centers on supporting religious congregations as they impact community outcomes. Using Afrofuturist, feminist, and mediating structures theories, Scott helps congregations and communities reimagine and strategize for meaningful futures. She also teaches the following courses: 1) Community & Organizational Change: Theory for Practice; 2) Power, Privilege, & Oppression; 3) Spirituality & Social Work; and 4) Critical Approaches to Facilitating and Teaching: Anti-racist, Feminist, and Queer Pedagogies.
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Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
August 2016 - August 2019
As a research fellow, Scott researched the impact of religious congregations as service providers and community leaders and 2) youth’s engagement with and understanding of globalization. Her dissertation Crossing Tracks & Ponds: Preparing Youth for a Global Society, assessed how religious congregations could serve as a mediating structure for youth, as they come of age in a global society. In addition to her dissertation and research, she was a Co-Principal Investigator on a six state research project in India centered on digital banking in rural India (PI: Ram Cnaan, PhD). Additionally, she was the instructor of the Action Research methods course for the Master of Social Work program at the School of Social Policy & Practice.
Research Assistant, Washington University in St. Louis, Race & Opportunity lab at George Warren Brown School of Social work
January 2015 - June 2016
As a research assistant, Scott researched the effects race has on opportunities and access for youth. Within a cohort of PhD and MSW students, Scott researched racial stigma and treatment of mental illness for black youth. This work led Scott’s interests in youth outcomes and the systems and organizations that impact their overall wellbeing. The training from the Race & Opportunity lab led by Dr. Sean Joe inspired Scott to pursue a PhD in Social Welfare.
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Select Scholarship
Scott, M. L., Atteberry-Ash, B., Holloway, B.T., and Walls, N.E. (2024). "Experiences of religious acceptance and rejection among currently religious and out transgender young adults in the United States." Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 1-26.
Scott, M. L., DeChants,J.P., Atteberry-Ash, B.,and Walls, N.E. (2024). "Identity matters: Religious experiences of US based transgender young people." Journal of religion and health 63(3), 2443-2465.
Scott, M. L. (2023). Functions of the Black Church in a global society: A Du Boisian approach." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 62(1), 27-47.
Scott, M.L. & Cnaan, R. (2020). Youth and religion in the age of global citizenship identification: An 18 country study of youth. Children and Youth Service Review. doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104754
Butler-Barnes, S.T., Martin, P.P., Hope, E. C., Copeland-Linder, N., & Scott, M.L. (2018). Religiosity and coping: Racial stigma and psychological well-being among African American girls. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(5), 1980-1995. doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0644-9
Joe, S.,Scott, M. L., Banks, A. (2018). What works for adolescent black males at risk of suicide: A review. Research on Social Work Practice, 28(3), 340-345. doi.org/10.1177/1049731517702745
Lindsey, M., Banks, A., Cota, C. F., Scott, M.L., Joe, S. (2018). A review of treatments for young black males experiencing depression. Research on Social Work Practice, 28(3), 320-329. doi.org/10.1177/1049731517703747
Banks, A., Fields, L., O’Dwyer, C., Scott, M.L. & Joe, S.(2018). Treating mental illness among diabetic Black male adolescents: A review. Research on Social Work Practice, 28(3), 330-339. doi.org/10.1177/1049731517702746
Scott, M. L. & Cnaan, R. (2017). Religious Congregations and Poverty Alleviation in the Age of New Public Governance. Nonprofit Research Forum, 8(4), 391-410. doi.org/10.1515/npf-2017-0013
Scott, M.L.,Heist, D., & Cnaan, R. (2017). The clergy as a director of a voluntary local association. Hevra V’Revacha (in Hebrew).
Interests
Black Church
Afrofuturist + Feminist theories
Community Impact
Religious Congregations as Meditating Structures
Strategic Planning for Complex Issues
Education
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
PhD, SOCIAL WELFARE
Washington Univeristy in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO
B.A. POLITICAL SCIENCE
MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK
Eden Theological Seminary
MASTER OF DIVINITY