Amanda Gold, M.A.
(May 2020 – Present)
Amanda is interested in how religious and spiritual coping, diversity and culture, and social justice contribute to wellbeing. In particular, she plans to examine how culture and diverse identities may interact with religious identity to promote or harm wellbeing. Amanda also has a keen interest in how religious stories contribute to coping and wellbeing at multiple levels of analysis. In addition, she is interested in psychotherapists’ consideration, understanding, and incorporation of culturally diverse clients’ religious identities, and how this may shape therapeutic processes and outcomes. Overall, Amanda hopes her research will help psychotherapists, researchers, and community members understand cultural and religious diversity better, while also promoting inclusivity and visibility of diverse groups.
Raymond La, M.A.
(August 2020 – Present)
Broadly speaking, I am interested in Asian American and broad ethnic mental health. I am particularly interested in how cultural factors such as acculturation/enculturation, ethnic identity, loss of face, familism, and experiences of discrimination and microaggressions influence mental health stigma, help seeking behavior, and psychopathology. Furthermore, I am also interested how cultural factors may relate to ethnic disparities in treatment outcome and how culturally adaptive treatment may help alleviate it. Finally, I want to expand on these research topics by investigating how these cultural factors may affect ethnic LGBTQ+ populations differently from cis- heterosexual counterparts, and how these differences may be tied to their experiences as within-group minorities.
Outside of lab, I can be found baking, weight training, playing video games, or dancing (breakdancing and salsa/bachata).
Kam MacNear, M.S.
(August 2019-Present)
The primary focus of my research is on race-related stress and Black mental health, with a specific focus on strengths-based protective factors. Additional points of interest include barriers and facilitators to mental healthcare access and treatment effectiveness for Black Americans, the mental health correlates of Black racial identity, and the positive effects of cultural storytelling on mental health. I recharge my batteries watching YouTube and anime with my fiancee, playing video games, and reading great books next to my great dog.
Chenhao Zhao, B.A.
(June 2022 – Present)
My research focuses on mental health disparities among Chinese international students (CIS) from both a clinical and cultural perspective. I am currently researching specific cultural barriers faced by Chinese international students in an effort to develop targeted interventions that will improve their psychological health. These are a few of my research interests:
- How does culture (such as acculturation) affect the mental health of CIS?
- How does culture impact the mental health treatments of CIS (such as help-seeking behaviors)?
- How do Chinese cultural values function as protective or risk factors for the psychological well-being of CIS?
- Is it possible to investigate and develop culturally-specific interpretations and psychometric assessments of CIS mental health concerns?