Department of psychology

Diversity at Kent State

The Department of Psychology at Kent State University is committed to promoting a diverse body of faculty and students and establishing a climate that facilitates understanding of different perspectives and beliefs.  Our faculty and students represent a diverse group of ethnicities, nationalities, and backgrounds.  We value research on underrepresented populations, and train students to work, teach, and serve clients from diverse backgrounds.  We strive to create a climate that respects differences in ethnic and racial heritage, gender, sexual orientation, age, social economic standing and physical abilities.

The Multicultural and Diversity Committee (MDC), formed by psychology graduate students, strives to make a positive difference in the education of all students through the promotion of an atmosphere of multicultural acceptance, competence, and diversity.

The Applied Psychology Center (APC) has specific funding programs that promote faculty and graduate student research on underrepresented populations (such as but not limited to ethnic minorities, women, the homeless).

• Faculty Under-researched Population Award offers research support for faculty-initiated projects involving under-investigated populations.
• Student Under-researched Population Award offers research support for student-initiated projects involving under-investigated populations.

Faculty Research in Diversity

Many of our faculty have active programs of research that focus on understanding issues pertaining to diversity in psychology, including:

• Dr. John Akamatsu studies gender and minority issues in depression.
• Dr. Joel Hughes studies ethnic differences in hypertension, blood pressure response, and sleep quality
• Dr. Josefina Grau studies parent-child relationships and children's social and emotional development, with an emphasis on cultural and contextual factors.
• Dr. Jack Graham studies personality and forensic assessment using the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A, including issues of validity with minority groups.
• Dr. Kristin Mickelson studies the effects of stressors on social support, socioeconomic status and social support, and gender attitudes.
• Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett is developing "Soothe Your Nerve Sister Circles", a federally funded, group psycho-educational intervention for panic targeting professional African American women.  Embedded within the Black professional community, the project exposes students to community participatory research as well as provides experience in delivering an evidence-based interventions for panic attacks.

Graduate Student Research in Diversity

Graduate students collaborate with faculty and develop independent research projects that focus on issues of diversity. Recent examples include:

• Aaron Armelie (Advisor: Doug Delahanty) is investigating a clinical trial of prolonged exposure therapy with African American, Latino, and Caucasian individuals living with HIV.
• Jessica Boarts & Aaron Armelie (Advisor: Doug Delahanty) studies trauma, PTSD, and health risk behavior among African American and Latino sexual minority youths.
• Brian Karazsia (Advisors: Manfred van Dulmen & Beth Wildman) investigates the factor structure of several models of Arnold et al.'s Parenting Scale (Arnold, O'Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993) across children from various age groups and races.
• Andrea Mata (Advisor: Manfred van Dulmen) investigates the moderating effect of ethnicity on differential predictors of the adult-onset trajectory of antisocial behavior.
• Andrea Vest & Liz Goncy (Advisor: Manfred van Dulmen) investigates family structure as a moderator for the link between parent-child relationships and adolescent conduct problems and how this model is different in African-American versus Caucasian American parent-child dyads. 
• Suhrida Yadavalli (Advisor: Doug Delahanty) studies the relationship between resilience, neuropsychological function and medication adherence in veterans living with HIV, examining race as a moderator between resilience and better adherence practices.

Graduate Courses that Teach about Diversity

All of our graduate courses have issues of diversity infused into the content of the course. We also have a number of graduate courses that deal specifically with issues of diversity, including:

• Seminar: Gender and Social Class
• Seminar: Gender and Minorities
• Seminar: Ethnic Minorities

Fellowships and Funding Opportunities

• McNair Scholars Program
• APA Minority Fellowships
• NIH-NRSA Pre-doctoral Fellowships
• NSF Graduate Fellowships
• Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships
• Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues
• Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues

Other KSU Resources

• KSU student organizations offer students opportunities to connect with the larger KSU community.
• Learn more about Diversity Initiatives at KSU.