Team

Bernadette Sánchez is a Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an expert on the role of mentoring relationships in the positive development and education of urban, low-income adolescents of color, particularly Latinx and African-American youth. Her research is on the role of volunteer and natural relationships in youth’s educational experiences, the resilience and resistance of youth who are marginalized in U.S. society, and the racial and ethnic processes (e.g., racial discrimination, racial/ethnic identity) that impact the development of youth of color and their relationships with mentors. Bernadette has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for her mentoring research and recently received a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation to evaluate a racial justice intervention for volunteer mentors of youth of color. She was a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation, and she is currently an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Community Psychology and a Fellow of the Society for Community Research & Action (SCRA; Div 27 of the American Psychological Association). Bernadette is a member of the Research Board for the National Mentoring Resource Center and received an Ethnic Minority Mentoring Award from SCRA. Bernadette is a first-generation college student and received her B.A. in Psychology from Fairfield University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Community and Prevention Research from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Jean is a postdoctoral consultant who holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology – Human Development and Learning at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her professional experiences as a high school teacher and social emotional learning specialist in Chicago Public Schools fostered her research interests in the areas of school discipline, social and moral development, and educator-student relationships. Jean holds a B.A. in History from Bard College and an M.A.T. in History and Social Studies Education from Boston University.

Anna is a student in the Youth Development program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She earned her B.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and an M.S. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Anna has worked as a researcher and project manager with the Clayton Christensen Institute, Community Based Mathematics Project of Philadelphia, and UChicago Consortium on School Research. Working with students as a STEM teacher for five years in Brooklyn and Queens and in out-of-school time programs in Philadelphia and Chicago led to her interest in positive youth development and mentoring. She is particularly interested in researching approaches that encourage young people to identify social capital assets in their communities and identities and investigating how cultural humility affects adults’ and young peoples’ abilities to build trusting relationships.

So Jung is a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology program (Human Development and Learning strand) at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she also earned her B.A. in Applied Psychology and M.Ed. in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, & Assessment. Her research broadly examines youth-adult relationships within informal learning contexts as central to fostering positive youth development. Grounded in antiracist praxis, her current work explores how ethnic-racial socialization unfolds within youth programs and how mentoring relationships in these settings can serve as spaces for racial healing and affirmation. Drawing on her own experiences of transformative mentorship, So Jung is dedicated to ensuring that all adolescents, particularly those navigating systemic inequities, can find guidance and agency in their development.

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Zaida is a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology program, with an emphasis in Human Learning and Development (HDL), at the University of Illinois Chicago. She earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan in Psychology, with a minor in Education for Empowerment. She is passionate about working with youth, where she has had the privilege of mentoring many unique, talented, and brilliant young people throughout various gymnastics coaching roles over the past nine years. Her past work with youth informs her research interests, which focus on exploring natural mentorship in OST contexts and how mentorship practices and training influence outcomes for underrepresented youth. Specifically, she is interested in examining mentorship practices that are asset-based, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed.

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Antonio is an undergraduate senior attending Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). He is a MARC-U STAR scholar studying Psychology with a minor in Mathematical and Statistical Modeling. His research interests involve supporting the positive development of underrepresented, low-income youth by examining ways to create meaningful educational experiences and by examining the relationship between community violence and mental well-being. Previous research experiences include looking at cognitive reflection and how it relates to gender and racial inequality in children, and also how visual-spatial ability relates to math proficiency in children.

Hailey is a research assistant with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a pre-medical concentration from the University of  Illinois Chicago. Her research interests include ADHD, youth development, dopamine-related processes, addiction and substance use, trauma, mental health disorders, and psychological well-being. She is particularly interested in the dynamics of mentorship, with a focus on relationships between youth of color mentees and their white mentors, explored through artistic and visual mediums. Her work aims to contribute meaningful insights at the intersection of psychology, mentorship, and mental health, reflecting a strong commitment to understanding and enhancing the experiences of underrepresented communities.

Ashton is an undergraduate sophomore attending the University of Illinois at Chicago(UIC). She is majoring in Human Development and Learning with a minor in Black Studies. Her research interests center in human development and social program development within poverty concentrated communities. She has great interest in expanding her knowledge on human research and interviewing techniques.

Kay Thursby Bourke, PhD – Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lake Forest College

Jade Valdez, BA – Doctoral Student in Counseling Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Yesenia Garcia-Murillo, PhD – Research Associate, Rockman et al Cooperative

Lidia Monjaras-Gaytan, PhD – Assistant Professor of Applied Social Psychology,  Loyola University Chicago, ffiliate of the Institute of Racial Justice

Wendy de los Reyes, PhD – Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at Claremont McKenna College

Amy J. Anderson, PhD – Assistant Professor, College of Education, University of North Texas, Denton, TX

Alex O’Donnell – Doctoral Student at Clinical-Child Psychology program at DePaul University, Chicago

Luciano Berardi, PhD – Director, TRiO Programs and Access Research, DePaul University, Chicago

Yarí Colón, PhD – Staff Psychologist at VA Caribbean Health Care System

Adina Cooper, PhD – Health Scientist, Centers for Disease Control, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Atlanta, Georgia

Lucia d’Arlach, PhD – Clinical Psychologist, North Valley Clinic, Albuquerque, NM

Rachel Feuer, PhD – Clinical Psychologist, Duke Adult Psychiatry Clinic, Durham, North Carolina

Andrea Flynn, PhD

Jessica Hudson, PhD – Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice, Chicago

Lynn Liao, PhD – Indigenous Services Canada

GiShawn Mance, PhD – Assistant Professor, Howard University, Washington DC

Andrew Martinez, MSW, PhD – Senior Research Associate, Center for Court Innovation, New York City

Alison Mroczkowski, PhD – Formerly a Research Scientist at the Department of Research & Evaluation at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Thara Nagarajan, PhD – Staff Psychologist, Heartland Alliance, Chicago

Terrinieka Powell, PhD – Associate Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Claudio S. Rivera, PhD – Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago

Katrina Roundfield, PhD – Co-founder of AppaHealth

Jamie Wernsman, PhD – Clinical Psychologist, Thrive Psychology, Brentwood, California