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Kenna Y

- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University

Expertise

psychology and public health

Bio

Hello, my name is Kenna! After receiving my Bachelors in Neuroscience and Masters in Public Health, I am currently pursuing my PhD in counseling psychology! My lab currently focuses on Racial Socialization and the ways it affects how parents, adolescents, and families navigate the world. My academic passions and interests include research that centers the history of mental health in Black and Immigrant communities and the coping skills developed over time. My ultimate goal with research is to increase accessibility and transform it into practice! I like to spend time with my large family, read books and go on walks! My guilty pleasure is binging and discussing movies and tv shows...probably too much!

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

What messages did you receive about race growing up?

In this project, you will collect data from individuals about their past experiences and messages that they've received about race in their childhood. You will then analyze the responses for common themes to determine what racial messages were received in their childhood. Some skills that you will acquire are conducting literature review of racial socialization and qualitative analysis skills.

Mental Health Stigma in the Black Community

This study will examine the intersections of stigma around mental health, access to healthcare, and race through a lens of structural inequality. You will acquire skills such as critical thinking, literature review searches, and consolidating data and research to be translated to the public.

How to Share your Research

For this project, you will learn how to share the ideas or research you have with the world! This could be through various modes such as powerpoint, writing a script for a podcast or video, or outlining a paper.

Teaching experience

I have participated in a few organizations that facilitated mentor-mentee relationships around academics or lifestyle support. I have also worked at learning programs, such as Kumon, where I assisted students with their homework and graded their assignments with feedback. After graduating from my master's program I also became a teaching assistant for a summer for a psychological measures course. I also have had experience mentoring and advising students through career and school application processes by sharing my materials and experience and referring them to helpful resources.

Credentials

Work experience

National Institute of Health- National Institute on Drug Abuse (2020 - 2022)
Post Baccalaureate Fellow
Bloomberg American Health Initiative ( Drexel University) (2020 - 2020)
Research assistant
Black Women's Health Alliance (2019 - 2020)
Graduate Intern

Education

Villanova University
BS Bachelor of Science (2018)
Cognitive and behavioral Neuroscience
Drexel University
MPH Master of Public Health (2020)
Community Health and Prevention
Virginia Commonwealth University
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Counseling Psychology

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