Undergraduate and Graduate Student Research Assistants
Breanna N. Beard (Howard University)
Breanna N. Beard is a fifth-year doctoral student of clinical psychology at Howard University in Washington, DC. Her research interest are sexual health and well-being among African American women.
Di’eayyah Boney (Howard University)
Di’eayyah Boney is Narrative Personality Psychologist and User Experience Researcher with a passion for diversity and inclusion. She was awarded an NSF BPRC D-IMASS Graduate Student Research Assistantship for Academic Year 2021/2022and is a graduate student apprentice in the Identity and Success Research Laboratory (ISRL). She graduated from the University of Miami then returned to academia at Howard University as a doctoral student. As an advocate of women’s research, it is her hope that my research will add to the current literature by connecting Psychology, Health Research, and Tech to demonstrate how the merging of the fields of industry plus social responsibility can add to the positive representations, experiences, equity, and wellbeing of marginalized social groups. Her current research focuses on the culturally specific mechanisms through which the psychological and physiological processes of autobiographical memory interact to form the goals of the working self and influence stress management, health behaviors, practices, and outcomes of African American women in STEM
Ashley Clark, M.Ed (Howard University)
Clark is originally from Richmond, California. She received her BS in Health Education, M.Ed in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Howard University and she is currently a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology program at Howard University. Clark has held a variety of positions in education: teacher, operations manager, student recruitment coordinator, resident experience coordinator and educational technology coordinator. Her research interests are school climate and African American students.
Adenike Cotton (Howard University)
Adenike Cotton is a junior psychology major, human development minor. She was awarded a NSF BPRC D-IMASS Undergraduate Student Research Assistantship for Academic Year 20/21, as well as appointed as an Identity & Success Research Laboratory (ISRL) Research Apprentice for Spring 2021. Within ISRL, Adenike further developed the knowledge, skills, and abilities to engage in rigorous psychological science. In so doing, she engaged in an ISRL research training model that integrated experiential learning, team science, independent research, and project based learning to explore the following theoretical question: What are the cognitive, affective, motivational and related neurological processes engaged in autobiographical memories and narrative identity development of African Americans? Training activities included ISRL Journal Club Training and ISRL Journal Article Writing Training, as well as other professional, personal, and leadership development training activities.
Caleb Lewis Freeman (Howard University)
Caleb Lewis Freeman is a biology major, chemistry and psychology double minor looking to get a PhD in a field that can integrate biology with parts of psychology. He was awarded an NSF BPRC D-IMASS Undergraduate Student Research Assistantship/Graduate Student Research Assistantship for Academic Year 2020-2021, as well as appointed as an Identity & Success Research Laboratory Research Apprentice for Spring 2021. Within ISRL, Caleb Freeman further developed the knowledge, skills, independent research, and project-based learning to explore the following theoretical question: What are the cognitive, affective, motivational, and related neurological processes engaged in autobiographical memories and narrative identity development of African Americans? Training activities included ISRL Journal Club Training and ISRL Journal Article Writing Training, as well as other professional, personal, and leadership development training activities.
Ricco Hill (Howard University)
Ricco Hill is a personality psychology doctoral student at Howard University. He was awarded an NSF BPRC D-IMASS Graduate Student Research Assistantship for Academic Year 21/22 and is an alumnus, as well as current member, of the Identity & Success Research Laboratory (ISRL). As an undergraduate student in ISRL, he developed his skills as a researcher and scholar through working with a team in conducting an exhaustive literature search and review, coding qualitative data, engaging in weekly critical readings and discussions of articles in the field of personality psychology, and further engaging closely with graduate-level research and writing. He graduated Howard University summa cum laude and was inducted as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He then returned to academia at Howard University as a doctoral student and recipient of the Frederick Douglass Fellowship. He has since been involved in multiple research labs spanning personality and quantitative psychology as well as psychophysiology. His current research involves emotion regulation and its measurement, with his dissertation focusing on applying frequency-based estimation as an alternative to Likert-type format in measuring emotion regulation strategy to efficiently capture variability in emotional behavior.
James Miller (Howard University)
James Miller is a Junior Psychology major and African-American Studies minor. He was awarded an NSF BPRC D-IMASS Undergraduate Student Research Assistantship 2021-2022 Academic Year, as well as appointed as an Identity & Success Research Laboratory (ISRL) Research Apprentice for Spring 2021. Within ISRL, James further developed the knowledge, skills, and abilities to engage in rigorous psychological science. In doing so, he engaged in an ISRL research training model that integrated experiential learning, team science, independent research, and project based learning to explore the following theoretical question: What are the cognitive, affective, motivational, and related neurological processes engaged in autobiographical memories and narrative identity development of African Americans? Training activities included ISRL Journal Club Training and ISRL Journal Article Writing Training, as well as other professional, personal, and leadership development training activities. Prior to engaging in ISRL psychological science training, James was a research assistant in the clinical research unit of Howard University Hospital.
Melvin Coston, Jr. (Morehouse College)
Melvin Coston, Jr. is a Research Assistant for the Identity Art and Democracy Lab at Morehouse College. As an NSF Research Scholar for the Lab his primary responsibilities focus on the translation, dissemination and mobilization of new scientific evidence generated by the Center for the Development of Identity and Motivation of African American Students in STEM. Coston is a psychology major and English minor with interest in how individuals and organizations create, develop and foster mindsets for success.
Anaya D. Davis (Winston-Salem State University)
Anaya D. Davis is a junior undergraduate psychology and art double major at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC. Her research interest centers on undergraduate students’ perceptions of art therapy.
Kadijah A. Lilley (Winston-Salem State University)
Kadijah A. Lilley is a junior undergraduate psychology major at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC. Her research interests are biracial identity and the perceptions of biracial individuals.