SBH Affiliates

Jeni Burnette (SBH co-director)
jlburne5@ncsu.edu

Jeni L. Burnette is a professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina and completed her Ph.D. in Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Burnette’s research is currently focused on understanding how to best implement growth mindset interventions. She has contributed to more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and her work has been funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Marchionne Foundation. Her work has been featured in national media outlets such as the New York Times and the Huffington Post.

Keywords of interest/expertise: social psychology; mindsets, motivation, wise interventions; open science

Laura Widman (SBH co-director)
lmwidman@ncsu.edu

Laura Widman is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University. Dr. Widman's research is focused on understanding and improving adolescent health, with an emphasis on sexual communication skill development and HIV/STD prevention. Her recent research incorporates digital technologies to deliver health programming to teens. Dr. Widman is also a coauthor on the bestselling undergraduate textbook in human sexuality, Our Sexuality.

Keywords of interest/expertise: adolescent development; sexual health; behavioral health interventions; meta-analysis

Elan Hope
ehope@ncsu.edu

Elan C. Hope is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University. Dr. Hope takes an assets-based approach to investigate individual and community factors that promote well-being for adolescents and emerging adults who face racism and racial discrimination. She uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine racial identity, critical consciousness, and racial socialization, in relation to youth activism, education, and health. She earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Smith College and her PhD in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan. Following graduate school, Dr. Hope completed post-doctoral research (sponsored by the William T. Grant Foundation) in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago.

Keywords of interest/expertise: adolescent development, education, critical consciousness, qualitative methods, mixed methods, racism, identity

Vanessa Volpe
vvvolpe@ncsu.edu

Vanessa V. Volpe is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University and a diversity scholar in the social sciences through the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan. Dr. Volpe’s research is focused on finding ways to eliminate and prevent racial health and healthcare disparities between Black and White individuals in the United States. To do so, she studies the ways that racism and other intersectional forms of oppression impact the stress-related health and health care outcomes of Black communities, with a particular focus on online, technological, and structural racism contexts and processes. Her work has been supported by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Society for Community Research and Action, and Association of American Medical Colleges. She directs the Black Health Lab and teaches courses on health psychology.

Keywords of interest/expertise: racism; stress and coping; cardiovascular risk; young adulthood; health psychology