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SUMMER 2026 LABS
The Connect Lab is directed by Dr. Elise Cappella.
The Connect Lab conducts research to understand and strengthen contexts for learning and mental health in low-income education settings. We study natural opportunities for academic, social, and emotional learning via productive relationships and quality interactions.
The Homeplace Lab is directed by Dr. Lauren Mims.
The Homeplace Research Collective is a research lab that centers the lived experiences of Black children and their families through community-engaged, child-centered research on Black child development. Through partnerships with community organizations (e.g., Black Girl programming), local schools, and policymakers, the Homeplace lab actively challenges systems of oppression to envision and co-create a world where Black children can thrive.
The Arcadia Lab is directed by Dr. Pamela Morris-Perez.
ARCADIA is a research lab that takes a developmentally informed, population-health approach to adolescent suicide. Traditional approaches to suicide prevention have been largely confined to the formal mental health system, creating a disconnect from the places and people that shape adolescents’ daily lives. This system-level isolation has led to delayed intervention, limited accessibility, and difficulty in early identification - ultimately reaching only a small portion of youth who need support, often years after suicidal thinking begins.
The Intergroup Conflict and Social Change Lab is directed by Dr. Michelle Twali.
The Intergroup Conflict and Social Change Lab conducts research on conflict, violence, oppression, and social change. It examines processes that maintain intergroup violence and oppression and develops and tests interventions and strategies to dismantle them. Their research also examines the role that historical and sociopolitical contexts play in these processes. Our overarching goal is to generate knowledge and develop theoretically grounded interventions that reduce violence and promote peace and justice.
The Mental Health Equity Lab is directed by Dr. Lillian Polanco-Roman
Overall, the MHE lab aims to broaden our understanding of racism as a social determinant of health by examining how experiences of racism may function as a potentially traumatic exposure.
One major goal of the lab is to study the mental health consequences of experiences of racism in its various forms. Using a racial trauma framework, their research tests whether racism-related experiences elicit traumatic stress reactions to help explain some of the racial disparities observed in youth mental health, and whether culture-specific processes may buffer the harmful effects of racism.
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