COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
Dr. Noelle Hurd is an Associate Professor in the psychology department at the University of Virginia. Her overarching research interest is the promotion of healthy adolescent development among marginalized youth. Specifically, her work has focused on identifying opportunities to build on pre-existing strengths in youths’ lives, such as supportive intergenerational relationships. Through a series of interrelated projects, she currently is examining the mechanisms that drive the promotive effects of supportive intergenerational relationships, investigating the role of contextual factors in promoting or deterring the formation of intergenerational relationships between marginalized youth and the adults in their communities, and developing an intervention focused on enhancing positive intergenerational relationships between adolescents and the nonparental adults in their everyday lives. She is a William T. Grant Scholar, an NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, and was recently recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science.
Dr. Aerika Brittian Loyd is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. She received her PhD in Human Development and Child Study from Tufts University, and completed postdoctoral training in the Prevention Research Center at Arizona State University. As a developmental scientist, she has investigated social stressors and protective factors among African American and Latinx youth and families, and she provides recommendations for culturally informed youth practice, prevention, and policy. Her research on the links between racial stress, health and development in African American justice-involved youth has been funded by NICHD and NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health. Dr. Loyd’s research on youth of color in the Unites States and youth in South Africa has been published in Child Development Perspectives, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Research, and the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Dr. Shauna M. Cooper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her research program examines cultural and contextual factors that contribute to development and wellbeing, with a specific focus on African American children, adolescents and families. Her work spans multiple areas (e.g., parental involvement; ethnic-racial socialization; gender-related processes; youth community involvement) and has been published in a variety of scientific journals (Journal of Research on Adolescence; Journal of Youth and Adolescence; Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology; Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review). Her current works examines: 1) social factors and mechanisms guiding African American fathers’ parenting ideologies and involvement and 2) how father-adolescent relationships contribute to adjustment in adolescent and emerging adulthood. Dr. Cooper’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the NICHD. Dr. Cooper has been a long-time member of SRCD, including past Chair of the Black Caucus (2013-2017).
Dr. Lisa Kiang is a Professor of Psychology at Wake Forest University. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Denver and completed NIMH-funded postdoctoral training at UCLA. Her research focuses on cultural identity and social relationships, with an emphasis on positive well-being in ethnically diverse and immigrant youth. Her research has been funded by the American Psychological Foundation, NSF, and the John Templeton Foundation. She is on the Editorial Board for a number of journals including the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and the Asian American Journal of Psychology. She is a long-time member of SRCD and was the Secretary of SRCD’s Asian Caucus from 2013-2017.
Dr. Jennifer A. Kotler Clark is the Vice President of Content Research & Evaluation at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street and other educational initiatives for children. Jennifer leads a team conducting research projects across the globe focused on a variety of curricular areas (e.g. literacy, STEM, social-emotional well-being, executive function, health) across media platforms (television, web, apps, print materials). She also spearheads Sesame Workshop studies designed to illuminate issues important for children’s positive development.
Jennifer graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Human Development and Family Studies. She went on to receive her master’s degree in Human Development from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in Child Development and Family Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She is on a life-long mission to visit all units of the National Park Service, is an avid bird photographer, and often presents research in song.
Dr. Dalal Katsiaficas is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in Human Development and Psychology. Her research program focuses on exploring the positive development of immigrant-origin youth, with regards to the development of multiple identities and social and academic engagement. As a cultural developmental psychologist, Dr. Katsiaficas uses participatory action research methods to frame her work. Her team has employed multiple methods to examine the adult identities of immigrant-origin community college students in NYC, the positive development of undocumented and DACAmented college students in Los Angeles, and most recently the impact of the 2016 US presidential elections on the civic engagement and identities of immigrant-origin college students in Chicago. Her research has been published in a variety of journals including Child Development, Teachers College Record, American Psychologist, Harvard Educational Review, Qualitative Psychology, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.
Dr. V. Paul Poteat is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology at Boston College. His research focuses on the school-based experiences of sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth. His research on Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) has identified individual- and group-level mechanisms by which these school-based extracurricular groups empower and promote resilience among youth from diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. His work also examines bias-based harassment using an ecological framework to consider individual and peer factors that contribute to such behavior or that buffer against its effects. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and published in journals in the fields of psychology, public health, and education. Dr. Poteat has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence and The Counseling Psychologist and sits on the editorial boards of other journals for developmental science and SGM health.
GOVERNING COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE
Dr. Stephen Russell is Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor in Child Development and chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an expert in adolescent and young adult health, with a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity. He has studied health risk and resilience among LGBT youth and young adults, with an emphasis on gender and race/ethnic/cultural differences in health. Much of his research is guided by a commitment to create social change to support healthy adolescent development. At the University of Texas at Austin he has served as chair of the College of Natural Sciences Committee on Diversity & Inclusion; co-chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on LGBTQ+ Initiatives; and co-chair of the Provost’s Council for LGBTQ+ Access, Equity, and Inclusion. Nationally he has served on the governing boards of the Society for Research in Child Development, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), National Council on Family Relations (he was elected fellow), and was President of the Society for Research on Adolescence (2012-2014).
SRCD SECC REPRESENTATIVE
Dr. Fiorella L. Carlos Chavez is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at the University of Missouri, Columbia. She graduated with a PhD in Human Development and Family Science from Florida State University in 2018 and earned a M.S. in Counseling with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy from San Diego State University in 2014. As an immigrant Latina, Fiorella is particularly interested on the implications of family, work, and cultural-related stressors on Latino migrant youth’ mental health and development. For her dissertation titled: “Family Decisions, Stressors, And Health Challenges Among Latino Emancipated Migrant Farmworker Youth: A Mixed-Methods Approach,” Fiorella was awarded a two-year initiatives grant from Kappa Omicron Nu (KON), the National Honor Society for the Human Sciences. Furthermore, she is also one of the four SRCD Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award winners as well as the 2019 SRCD Latino Caucus Dissertation Award. In spring 2019, Dr. Fiorella L. Carlos Chavez was awarded with the 2019 Small Grants for Early Career Scholars Program from SRCD. Her grant application will examine the adult-like behaviors and unique characteristics of Latino emancipated migrant youth (EMY) in agriculture through the application of an exploratory mixed-method design.