Dr. Khadijah S. Peak-Brown
Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies
Office: Brown 211
Phone:
Email: ksbrown@nsu.edu
Bio: Dr. Khadijah Peak-Brown is an educational psychologist, scholar, and Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Norfolk State University whose work examines the role of self-efficacy in academic achievement, persistence, career development, and student success. Her scholarship draws upon educational psychology and interdisciplinary research to investigate how individuals develop the beliefs, behaviors, and experiences necessary to translate their abilities into sustained action and achievement.
Dr. Peak-Brown is the creator of the Momentum Model, a self-efficacy-centered framework organized around four movements (Awareness, Alignment, Action, and Advancement) that translates psychological theory into practical strategies for teaching, advising, mentoring, and career development. Her article, “The Momentum Model: Self-Efficacy as the Equalizer of Success,” was published in the RAIS Journal for Social Sciences. Her subsequent work, “The Momentum Model: A Classroom Activity for Building Student Self-Efficacy,” was peer reviewed and published by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, Division 2 of the American Psychological Association, through its Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology.
Her current research extends this work across emerging areas of higher education, psychology, and student development. Dr. Peak-Brown is conducting research examining the impact of generative artificial intelligence use on undergraduate students’ critical thinking and academic self-efficacy; the application of the Momentum Model as a classroom self-efficacy intervention; and the relationships among self-efficacy, masculinity beliefs, digital media exposure, and susceptibility to Red Pill ideology among college-aged men. She also mentors undergraduate researchers at Norfolk State University and has served as a faculty research mentor through the university’s Undergraduate Research Mentor Program.
Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Peak-Brown built an extensive career in academic advising, student success, retention, and college access. Her professional work has included leadership of student-success and transition initiatives at Norfolk State University and Tidewater Community College, where she developed and implemented programs designed to strengthen persistence, mentorship, academic readiness, and pathways to college completion. Her scholarship in academic advising has addressed self-efficacy, equity-centered advising, and double consciousness in the advising relationship.
Dr. Peak-Brown has held national leadership roles within NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising and has received national recognition for her contributions to the academic advising profession. Her work in advising, student success, and higher education provided the foundation for a scholarly agenda that now bridges educational psychology, interdisciplinary studies, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Dr. Peak-Brown earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Regent University, where her doctoral research examined self-efficacy-focused summer bridge programming and students’ perceptions of success during the transition to college. She also earned an Ed.S. in Educational Psychology and an M.A. in Student Affairs.
At the center of Dr. Peak-Brown’s work is a simple but consequential idea: what individuals believe about their own capabilities can shape what they are willing to attempt, persist through, and ultimately achieve.