Carlotta
Arthur, PhD, received a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Purdue
University. She received an M.A. in psychology and a Ph.D in clinical
psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Dr. Arthur’s primary research interests are minority health disparities
and cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stress. She was involved in
a number of interesting health-related research projects including studies
of adaptation to recurrent psychological stress, white-coat hypertension, chronic
pain and personality disorders, and binge eating disorder. Prior to accepting
the Kellogg Scholars program, Dr. Arthur completed a clinical health psychology
internship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston Texas.
Current research topics include perceived racism, ethnic identity, and stress;
resilience, anxiety and stress; social trust, hostility, and health; emotion
and cancer; and stress and obesity. Dr. Arthur has initiated four distinct
research projects: an analysis of racial differences in cardiovascular reactivity
to stress; an analysis of differences in perceived racism among African-American
and Caribbean-American groups; an analysis of cardiovascular recovery from
stress tasks by racial/ethnic group; and an analysis of racial differences
in heart rate variability in response to stress tasks.
Dr. Arthur is at Harvard University.
Ly Uyen Nguyen, PhD, earned her B.A. in psychology
at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in clinical and community psychology
at the University
of Maryland. She completed her predoctoral internship at the Louis
de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South
Florida.
Her research interests include violence and violence prevention, ethnic minority
issues, cultural competence and cross-cultural psychology in general. Currently,
Dr. Nguyen is examining youth development and violence prevention programs
for the Asian and Pacific Islander population, and analyzing data on ethnic
and minority youth in the grantee sites funded by the federal Comprehensive
Community Mental Health Services program.
Dr. Nguyen has also served in the U.S. House of Representatives as legislative
assistant to Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott. In this capacity, she
has worked to develop national policy in many areas including women's and children's
issues, juvenile justice, crime and health and mental health.
Dr.
Nguyen is at Morgan State University.
Dean Robinson,
PhD,received
his bachelor's degree in political science at Stanford University and a doctorate
in the same field at Yale University.
He is currently on leave from his position as an Associate Professor of
Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Dr. Robinson’s research focuses on African-American politics, social
movements and political thought. He is the author of a recent book, "Black
Nationalism in American Politics and Thought," (Cambridge University
Press, 2001). Dr. Robinson has also initiated a book-length project that
will explore the effects of the conservative ascendancy in American politics
on black American health. The project proposes to look at the issue of black/white
health disparities since the Reagan administration by examining three general
policy domains: 1) health care access 2) jobs and educational opportunity
and 3) social welfare provision.
Dr. Robinson is at Harvard University
Ronica N. Rooks, PhD, received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology,
with concentrations in demography and social stratification, from the
University
of Maryland at College Park. She received a B.A. in sociology/anthropology
and economics from St. Mary's College of Maryland. Prior to accepting
the Kellogg Scholars program, Dr. Rooks was a postdoctoral fellow in
epidemiology at the National Institute on Aging.
Dr. Rooks research focuses on explaining racial and socioeconomic status
health disparities in chronic disease and physical functioning in older
adults, utilizing Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) data,
a seven-year, longitudinal, clinical, cohort study of 3,075 healthy black
adults and white adults aged 70-79, from Memphis and Pittsburgh.
Dr. Rooks also works on the Ypsilanti Everyday Stress (YES) Health study,
a pilot study of 99 black and white adults, aged 25 to 55, from low and
middle socioeconomic status neighborhoods in Ypsilanti MI, focused on stress
related to unfair treatment or discrimination, race, and SES. She examines
the association between hypertension and 1) the total and type of exposure
to acute unfair treatment in employment, housing, education, the legal
system, and/or other service situations
2) whether the unfair treatment was
perceived as racially-attributed and 3) chronic exposure to unfair treatment
at work and in everyday stressful experiences.
Dr. Rooks
is at the University of Michigan.
Mercedes Rubio, PhD, received her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the
University of Michigan. She completed her B.A. in sociology from California
State
University, Bakersfield. As an immigrant and the oldest child of Mexican
immigrant parents, her interests in health disparities stem partly
from her childhood experiences seeing how the health system and medical
professionals treat those who are poor, uninsured and don't speak English.
As a medical sociologist, Dr. Rubio's research interests focus on the relationship
among socioeconomic status, immigration and health outcomes. Currently, Dr.
Rubio is working on an HIV intervention project with adolescents in Monterrey,
Mexico examining the association between social class and health behaviors.
Dr. Rubio hopes to gain an understanding of how social class, neighborhood
context and health behaviors interrelate in an international context. She hopes
that her research will contribute to our understanding of the health status
of Mexican Americans in the United States.
Dr.
Rubio is at the University of Michigan
Kim Lisbeth
Dobson Sydnor, PhD, received her undergraduate degree in psychology at Morgan
State University and earned her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of
Hygiene
and Public Health.
Dr. Dobson Sydnor’s published research includes work in the area
of African-American college students' alcohol, cigarette and other drug
use. Other manuscripts have explored the relationship between spirituality
and health. Dr. Dobson Sydnor's dissertation was a longitudinal study investigating
pathways to employment among African-Americans. The guiding framework for
all of the research is the life course perspective that sees the influence
of contextual factors as an important part in understanding health outcomes.
Dr. Dobson Sydnor has been an active participant in an ongoing research
project, “The Role of African Churches in Prostate Cancer Prevention.”
