I am a child psychologist with a focus on school-aged populations. I
am broadly interested in how youth from racially diverse backgrounds
(particularly African American children) who are successful in their academic and
social development differ from their less successful peers. In
particular, I seek to gain a better understanding of how constructs such as
parent involvement, teacher-child relationships, racial socialization, and
school quality serve as protective factors in relation to positive outcomes.
Procedurally, I utilize a mixed-methods program of quantitative
methods, qualitative interviews, or various syntheses of the two depending on my
research questions. My current research is focused on youth development along
three inter-related areas:
1. Developing school and community
interventions that focus on children’s strengths.
2. Analyzing developmental trajectories and ecological contexts (i.e.
family, schools, and peers) of academically successful children through the use
of large-scale datasets. This line of research utilizes the nationally
representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECSLS), the Special
Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), and the Education
Longitudinal Study of 2002.
3. Professional issues in the field of school psychology related to increasing the effectiveness of service delivery for children at-risk. This
includes research to increase the number of ethnically diverse faculty and practitioners, improving
the research methods used to study African American children, and to improve
school professionals implicit associations (potential, intelligence, ability)
when working with African American children.