Outstanding Student Diversity Research Award Winners

2022: Violeta Rodriguez and Andrea Wiglesworth (Honorable Mention)

Violeta is a 5th-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Georgia, working under the mentorship of Anne E. Shaffer, PhD. Violeta's program of research is focused on 1) the measurement of family-related constructs to address the demand for psychometrically sound and equitable measures in parenting, and 2) psychometric validations or evaluations of measures in marginalized populations. In addition to her impressive publication record, Violeta has received multiple awards for her research and has received R36 funding by NIMH to complete her dissertation research.

Andrea is a doctoral student in the Clinical Science and Psychopathology Research Program at the University of Minnesota and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, working under the mentorship of Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, Ph.D. Andrea integrates research focused on biological mechanisms of suicide risk and Indigenous psychology in her work to advance Native American suicidology.

2021: Steven Kasparek and Tenille Taggart (honorable mention)

Steven Kasparek is a doctoral student in the Clinical Science program at Harvard University, working under the mentorship of Dr. Katie McLaughlin. In addition to his commitment to increasing the recruitment and retainment of under-represented minority (URM) scholars in psychological science in his department, Steven possesses an impressive record of research and funding dedicated to identifying resilience factors that might buffer children from developing psychopathology following exposure to trauma and other forms of early-life adversity as well as mechanisms that play a role in linking these experiences with the onset of psychopathology. 

Tenille is a doctoral student in the Clinical Science program at Stony Brook University, working under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas Eaton. She is currently completing her predoctoral internship at San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health in the Outpatient/Forensic track. Tenille's impressive program of research is focused on reducing and eliminating LGBTQ+ identity-related health disparities. 

2019: Devin Banks and Tenille Taggart (honorable mention)

Devin Banks is from Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Devin works with Dr. Tamika Zapolski, and is currently completing her internship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her work aims to improve models of substance use and sexual risk among Black adolescents by considering how cultural factors, such as racial identity and discrimination, interact with more traditional conceptualizations of risk and reslience. Devin has an impressive publication record and a program of research that has already made significant contributions to clinical and diversity science. 

Tenille Taggart is from Stony Brook University. Under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas Eaton, Tenille's research uses an intersectional framework to understand different health disparities experienced by subgroups of LGBTQ+ populations. 

 2018: Craig Rodriguez-Sejias and Alayna Park (honorable mention)

Craig works with Dr. Nick Eaton at Stony Brook University, and is currently completing his internship at Brown University. He studies transdiagnostic psychopathological processes and disparities in health among marginalized groups, as well as connections between discrimination and mental health. He has an impressive publication record and a program of research that has already made significant contributions to psychological science and diversity science. He is truly an impressive developing researcher.

2017: Lauren Khazem and Craig Rodriguez-Sejias (honorable mention)

Lauren Khazem is a graduate student the University of Southern Mississippi. Lauren's research aims to identify drivers of suicide in individuals with physical disabilities. Craig Rodriguez-Sejias' research aims to understand mental health disparities among minority groups and processes regarding transdiagnostic psychopathology.

2016: Donte Bernard

Donte is part of Dr. Enrique Neblett’s lab at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Donte was selected from an extremely competitive pool of applicants. Donte’s works explores the positive psychological development of racial minority youth, with an emphasis on identifying risk and protective factors that may influence the link between race-related stress and the imposter phenomenon, or feelings of intellectual incompetence, among African American youth and emerging adults. 

2015: Juliette McClendon Iacovino 

Juliette is a PhD candidate at Washington University where she is now studying under the auspices of Dr. Tom Oltmanns. A graduate of Harvard (AB, Social & Cognitive Neuroscience), her research - which has been published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and other high impact journals and is presently supported by an NRSA - examines psychosocial and cultural risk factors for a broad array of mental disorders with a focus on racial disparities. She is also committed to diversity training and has served extensively within her department and university on many committees to increase awareness of issues related to diversity science.