Earlise Ward leads the Morgridge Center for Public Service in its mission to boost civic engagement, promote community-based teaching and learning and create and support partnerships between UW-Madison and communities. She oversees the Morgridge Center’s public service, community-based research and service-learning activities. Since 2007, Earlise has served as a faculty member in the School of Nursing. Her research examines disparities in mental health experienced by minorities, with a focus on major depressive disorder. A licensed psychologist, Ward has witnessed first-hand in her clinical practice the impact of mental health disparities on minority communities. Earlise moved to Madison from Brooklyn, New York in 1997 to pursue her PhD.