SRCD Members in the News: Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson

SRCD Member,  Riana Elyse Anderson, Ph.D., L.C.P. (University of Michigan), has been awarded the Early Career Impact Award from FABBS. This award is presented to early career scientists of FABBS member societies who are within ten years of completing their Ph.D. and recognizes scientists who have made major contributions to our sciences. Dr. Anderson was nominated by SRCD, a member scientific society of FABBS.

The purpose of the Early Career Impact Award is to recognize scientists who have made major research contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior. The goal is to enhance public visibility of these sciences and the particular research through the dissemination efforts of FABBS in collaboration with the member societies and award winners.

Riana Elyse Anderson, Ph.D., L.C.P. is an Assistant Professor in the Health Behavior and Health Education Department in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. Her scholarship addresses culturally specific parenting practices to reduce race-related stress in families. She earned her doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology at the University of Virginia and was a Clinical and Community Psychology Predoctoral Fellow at Yale University’s School of Medicine. She was a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Anderson strives to improve psychological outcomes for Black youth through culturally and contextually relevant parenting programs focused on racism and discrimination, effective coping strategies, and community building, participation, and collaboration. One of her primary goals is to create interventions and youth centers which support the mental and physical health of Black youth in urban communities. Dr. Anderson aims to facilitate healing in Black families with practical applications of her research and clinical services, as well as through teaching/mentorship and policy recommendations.

Dr. Anderson has been a member of SRCD since 2017 and has been an active member of the SRCD Black Caucus and the Equity and Justice Committee. She was also a recipient of the 2018 SRCD Early Career Scholar Small Grant for her research entitled, "Reducing Racial Stress in Black Families: Improving Racial Socialization Competency through a Culturally- Informed Familial Therapeutic Intervention."