Speakers

Erin Todey (she/her) is the Assistant Director of the McNair Scholars Program at Iowa State University. She earned her BA in French & International Studies and her MA in Applied Linguistics. Erin has taught a range of composition, linguistics, and academic writing courses in different domestic and international higher education contexts. Her research interests center on how discourse analysis methodologies can be meaningfully used in teaching academic writing, especially to support UR/FG/LI students in graduate school applications and academic writing. 

Dr. Kathryn Thompson is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) in the departments of Community Health Sciences and Health Law, Policy, and Management. She finds dynamic and methodologically rigorous ways to collect, analyze, and convey her research and results as an interdisciplinary health services researcher. Her research employs tools from health services research and population health science to demonstrate how macrolevel and microlevel health systems are determinants of health inequities. She leverages economic frameworks to quantitatively study how social, demographic, and policy contexts shape health and disparities for pregnant women, people of color, and Medicaid populations. Additionally, her research provides evidence that social identities—like race/ethnicity—and social positions—like socioeconomic status—combine in unique ways to structure health care access, health service utilization, and health outcomes. Prior to joining BUSPH, she completed her PhD in Health Services Research at the Brown University School of Public Health in May of 2023. Dr. Thompson is a McNair Scholar alumnus at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where she received her Bachelor of Science (2014) and Master of Health Administration (2017). 

Dr. Donte Bernard is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri.

He earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology with a child and family emphasis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed an APA accredited internship at the University of Miami Mailman Center for Child Development.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University, where he was a McNair Scholar.

Following his doctoral training, Dr. Bernard completed a NIMH-funded T-32 Postdoctoral Fellowship, specializing in traumatic stress, at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Bernard’s current research investigates the psychological impact of racism-related stress and trauma in the lives of Black youth and families.