Jennifer M. Gómez, Ph.D. has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, scholarly writings, and pieces for the general public. Additionally, she is the lead co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Discrimination, Violence, & Healing in Marginalized Communities (anticipated publication date: Spring 2021). She also is a Board Member and Chair of the Research Committee for the Center for Institutional Courage, a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming institutional approaches and responses to trauma and inequality. She is the Cultural Liaison for the Metro Detroit Association of Black Psychologists as well. Her research has been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences and funded by the Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs and Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR). By focusing on societal inequality’s role on the impact of violence for marginalized youth, young adults, and elders, Dr. Gómez uses her cultural betrayal trauma theory to both document harm and identify avenues of hope and healing for youth, families, communities, institutions, and society.

Research Interests

Clinical psychology; cultural betrayal trauma theory; betrayal trauma theory; institutional betrayal; trauma psychology; child sexual abuse; campus sexual violence; youth/young adults; Black/African Americans; cultural minorities; discrimination; cultural competency & humility

Website

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Christina Harrington, Ph.D. is a designer and qualitative researcher and currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the School of Design in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University. Her research focuses on addressing health-related challenges experienced by marginalized populations through design. In particular, she is interested in leveraging co-creation and community-based participatory research methods to understand the needs and experiences that can inform inclusive interactive health technologies for low-income and minority older adults. She explores how constructs of identity and social positioning impact our interactions with technology, including individual access to online information, the relevance of certain systems in our everyday lives, and the ways we accept certain interventions.

As an assistant professor at DePaul University, Dr. Harrington teaches classes in human-computer interaction, interaction design, and ethics in technology design. She is the author of several conference proceedings, top-tier journal articles, and a book chapter about aging, technology, health and equitable approaches to participatory research.

Christina is the Director of the Equity and Health Innovations Design Research Lab at DePaul which serves as an innovation studio where students work alongside community residents to envision solutions to health challenges. Dr. Harrington received her Ph.D. in Industrial Design with a focus on accessible interaction design from Georgia Tech in the fall of 2017. She earned a Master’s in Industrial Design from North Carolina State University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. You can see more about her work and research interests at www.christinaharrington.me.

Research Interests

Inclusive design, human-centered design, community-based participatory research, health information technology, participatory design, design for aging.

Dr. Samuele Zilioli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at Wayne State University, Detroit. He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Sciences from Simon Fraser University and was the recipient of the Governor General’s Gold Medal for achieving the highest academic standing upon graduation. His program of research focuses on understanding socioeconomic status and racial/ethnic health disparities. He is the director of the Biopsychosocial Health Laboratory, whose research focuses on the relationships between social stressors, psychosocial resources, and endocrine function (e.g., glucocorticoid-related mechanisms), and the extent to which these biopsychological mechanisms serve as pathways through which stress affects other biological systems (e.g., immune, cardiovascular, and metabolic system) and physical health across the lifespan. Ultimately, the mission of the Biopsychosocial Health Laboratory is to improve health in local and global communities through basic science discoveries that can be instrumental for the development of effective interventions.

Research Interests

Health Psychology, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Psychoneuroimmunology, Social Neuroendocrinology, Racial Health Disparities

Riana Elyse Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. She uses mixed methods in clinical interventions to study racial discrimination and socialization in Black families to reduce racial stress and trauma and improve psychological well-being and family functioning. She is particularly interested in how these factors predict familial functioning and subsequent child psychosocial well-being and health-related behaviors when enrolled in family-based interventions. Dr. Anderson is the developer and director of the EMBRace (Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race) intervention and loves to translate her work for a variety of audiences, particularly those whom she serves in the community, via blogs, video, and literary articles. Finally, Dr. Anderson was born in, raised for, and returned to Detroit and is becoming increasingly addicted to cake pops.

Dr. Allen’s research seeks to better understand and address the complex interactions between contextual, psychosocial, biological, and behavioral factors involved in stress and coping processes that contribute to disparities in chronic disease among older U.S. adults, with an emphasis on the health of Black men. Her current projects investigate the characteristics of stressor exposure (e.g., timing in the life course, number, severity, chronicity, life domain) most salient for biobehavioral stress processes, such as HPA axis dysregulation and self-regulatory coping behaviors (e.g., responding to stressors by eating high sugar/fat foods, smoking, exercising, meditating). She is also examining how these biobehavioral processes contribute to development, progression, and disparities in cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health outcomes among midlife and older adults.  

Dr. Byrd’s early career work examined health disparities over the life course and identified Black and White differences in trajectories of cognitive abilities using the Americans Changing Lives Survey. This formed the basis for her research on elucidating racial disparities in adult cognition and for her recent K01 submission examining the roles of hypertension, stress, and coping in the cognitive health of African Americans.

Dr. Byrd has published in several journals, including Maternal and Child Health Journal, Journal of American College Health, Preventing Chronic Disease, SSM – Population Health, Journal of Aging and Health, and Research in Human Development. She has received multiple awards and recognitions, including the 2020 Postdoctoral Trainee Research Award from Wayne State University, Butler-Williams Scholar Program from the National Institute on Aging (2019), the Diversity & Disparities Professional Interest Area Early Career Award from the Alzheimer’s Association (2019), the James G. Zimmer New Investigator Award from the American Public Health Association (2018), and 3rd place in the poster competition at the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center Annual Research Symposium (2018). Dr. Byrd is an active member of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (MADRC), the Michigan Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease (MCCFAD), and the Michigan Center for Urban African American Aging Research (MCUAAAR), which focuses on education, research, and faculty development.