Chris Beasley is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Tacoma (UWT). As a community psychologist Dr. Beasley conducts community-engaged applied research to strengthen communities while also participating in grassroots organizing to support such settings and helping students develop knowledge and skills for this type of work. He uses a wide variety of psychological sub-disciplines to better understand social and psychological factors that facilitate and hinder transitions from prison to college.

For his action work, Dr. Beasley is  working to strengthen UW Tacoma support for people making these transitions to this university as well as to other universities in Tacoma and around the state. He also co-founded the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN) – a national organization of people with college degrees who have been to prison. FICGN's core mission is to promote the education and empowerment of formerly incarcerated people through a collective community. He is currently leading a founders committee that is tasked with developing this 500-member network into a nonprofit organization.