Taylor Marie Coats

Taylor Coats, LCSW, is an adjunct faculty member and doctoral candidate at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. Her scholarship sits at the intersection of eco-social work, community engagement, and collective action, with a particular interest in how communities build the relationships, resources, and capacity needed to respond to social and environmental challenges.

Coats’ research uses community-engaged, mixed-methods, and participatory approaches to examine place-based organizations, neighborhood social processes, environmental and built environments, collective care, and sustainable social action. Her dissertation, From Connection to Perception: How Engagement with Place-Based Organizations Shapes Safety, Built Environment, Social Capital, and Civic Engagement, examines how relationships with place-based organizations shape residents’ perceptions of their neighborhoods, social capital, and civic engagement. Her broader scholarship explores collective grief, critical hope, intergenerational resilience, and creative approaches to civic engagement and social change.

Before beginning her doctoral studies, Coats spent nearly a decade working with children, adolescents, families, and communities across behavioral health, substance use treatment, community-based services, and public health. As an educator and public scholar, she is committed to connecting research, teaching, and community knowledge in ways that make scholarship accessible and useful beyond the university.