Current Research Projects

PSU Commonwealth Campus Project

Goal: Conduct an initial investigation into the longitudinal effects of diversity climate on the academic success and mental health and well-being of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and SGM (sexual and gender minorities) students on different Penn State campus.

Centering belongingness, mattering, and inclusion (BMI) in the achievement and wellbeing of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students and faculty at MSIs and PWIs

Goal: Establish a partnership between PSU and Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Texas, in order to collect quantitative and qualitative data from BIPOC undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty to understand the experiences of belonging and alienation that individuals at PWIs and MSIs face and how these experiences have or have not influenced how they have engaged with their respective institutions, their perceived success and academic achievements, their interest/commitment to academic careers, and their overall mental health and wellbeing. Read more here!

Creation of the Multilevel Experiences of Oppression Scale

Oppression can impact the health and well–being of marginalized individuals in explicit and implicit ways, across various levels of experience, and be further shaped by differences in awareness, exposure to, and protection/buffering from oppressive forces. Thus, accurate assessment of how oppression impacts an individual necessitates adopting a multilevel perspective that considers how oppressive forces operate in different ways and at different levels of a person’s environment. We recently submitted a paper for publication on the creation of a scale that intends to capture the experiences of oppression of marginalized populations in different levels: structural, proximal, and personal.