Proud mentor moment 💙 Congrats to Aadarsh Nair on graduating with honors and heading to Tufts for a research MA in Clinical Developmental Psychology, Antonia Yuxin Hua on the Graduate Award for Excellence in Psych Science, and Jess on the Frederick & Ruby Kanfer Community Action Award. So proud!

One of the most meaningful parts of grad school was helping found the UGA Racial Trauma Task Force during COVID-19 and anti-Black racism in 2020. Big lesson: sometimes you just have to DO. Grateful to Dr. Isha W. Metzger and everyone involved in this work. doi.org/10.1002/ajcp...

New paper in Developmental Psychology: Rethinking parenting: A function-based framework for understanding caregiving across contexts We move from labeling parenting and focus on the goals behind behaviors (emotional connection, structure, cultural values). w/ Sungha Kang & @qmmmmliu.bsky.social!

New scoping review with @dllabarrie.bsky.social, Isha Metzger, & Sawyer Adams on racial socialization interventions for Black youth showing that caregiver involvement & culturally grounded approaches are linked to better coping, racial identity, & communication about race. A small evidence base!

New paper led by Yasmin Butt on transgender and gender diverse families with @qmmmmliu.bsky.social. We examine how stigma, parenting emotion regulation, and mental health are interconnected using network analysis. Internalized stigma and anxiety were central. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/2770...

So proud of @antoniayuxinhua.bsky.social and this exciting work being presented at #ADAA2026. If you are at the conference, be sure to stop by Poster S64 on Saturday afternoon. Great work on maternal depression, parenting, and youth mental health!

So proud of @jpstand.bsky.social on his first first-author paper (!!) 🎉 Important findings on disparities in suicidal ideation and unmet mental health needs using national data with a team lead by @qmmmmliu.bsky.social. Excited to see this work out in Archives of Suicide Research!

My new career column in Nature is out. After reviewing hundreds of PhD applications for my lab and admissions at the UIUC, I kept seeing the same mistakes. I share 8 common application and interview mistakes and what applicants can do differently. doi.org/10.1038/d415...

Shared a poster at the NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Symposium on structural topic modeling and network analysis of parent interviews—early results from my DP5 project. Shoutout to the Health Equity and Action Lab team for helping interview 151 parents in one semester. #NIH #EarlyIndependenceAward

Grateful to be in Bethesda for the NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Symposium. Honored to be here through the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award and to meet fellow awardees, including others in psychology. Inspiring science across fields!! #NIH #HighRiskHighReward

New paper w/ @qmmmmliu.bsky.social Network analysis of LGBTQIA+ parents linking parenting, stigma, & mental health. Supportiveness, reinforcement, & transphobia were central. Child psychopathology & parent anxiety bridged domains. Patterns varied by identity doi.org/10.1037/fam0001459

We loved having you @gramos.bsky.social!! Thanks so much for generously sharing your amazing work with us!

Wow! Honored that my essay was named one of Science’s Top Personal Essays of 2025 for the second year in a row! It means a lot that honest stories about the real pressures + joys of research resonate. Grateful to all who read, shared, and reached out. Read here ➝ www.science.org/content/arti...

I’m excited to be a panelist at APF’s second annual Springfield Town Hall on sustaining impact in LGBTQIA+ psychological research. 🗓 Feb 11, 2026 | 6 PM ET | Zoom 🔗 ampsychfdn.org/events/sprin... Open to all. Please share.

Thrilled to share my new study validating the Regulation of Emotions in Parenting Scale (REPS) in a large, racially diverse U.S. sample journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

SO HONORED AND GRATEFUL to receive the Emerging Latino Leader Award at the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation Gala. Thank you Senator Karina Villa and Rey Raigoza. Grateful to @psychillinois.bsky.social Head Diane Beck, Dean Venetria Patton, & @benhankin.bsky.social for nominating me.

anyone have any insight on how NIH study section catchup is unfolding? Don't wanna bother POs since I imagine backlog is bananas, but seeing section rosters posted for mtgs listed as 'did not take place'; curious ab what kinds of timelines we might expect from here (also seems odd to post rosters?)

New paper in Assessmentauthored by @psychillinois.bsky.social MSPS student @antoniayuxinhua.bsky.social, with @qmmmmliu.bsky.social. We validated the Regulating Emotions in Parenting Scale (REPS) across LGBT parents. Read: doi.org/10.1177/1073...

Officially licensed as a clinical psychologist in Illinois!!!!

So proud to share our paper on Academic Brokering with brilliant #LatinaScholars. 🌟 Grateful to @dllabarrie.bsky.social for leading the way & to Amanda Perozo Garcia, Michelle Perez, and @thaniagalvanphd.bsky.social for making this project come to fruition. 💜 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Grateful to NIH OAR for inviting me to join the panel at the Early Career Investigator Workshop in HIV. 🙏 Loved being in conversation about the many pathways research careers can take, and inspired by the leadership + commitment across institutes. 📺 Recordings: oar.nih.gov/nih-workshop...

Excited to be included in Nature’s roundup of 99 lab hacks! I shared advice on lab meetings + clear expectations for trainees. Small structures that can make a big difference in mentoring. Check out the full piece here: doi.org/10.1038/d415...

Reminder 🚨 The NIH Workshop for Early Career Investigators in HIV is this Friday! I’ll be speaking at 1:35pm ET, but the whole day is packed with great sessions. 📅 Sept 26, 2025 | 11am–3pm ET | Virtual Register here: www.scgcorp.com/eciworkshop2...

@qmmmmliu.bsky.social and I just gave a presentation for the UChicago internship program on writing faculty job statements. We talked through what makes them compelling (and what to avoid). Slides are here if interested 👉 osf.io/3skx4/?view_... Thanks to Dr. Shona Vas inviting us!!

🚨 New publication in Archives of Sexual Behavior! ❤️ Co–first authored w/ Dr. Qimin Liu — we applied conditional inference trees to examine intragroup nuances in discrimination + psychological distress among U.S. sexual minority adults. @psychillinois.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A critique in my review: “The authors used omega instead of alpha.” Cool, let me just return my master’s in measurement.

No other leads???

🚨 New paper in JMIR! 🚨 With @qmmmmliu.bsky.social, we analyzed nearly 1,000 Facebook comments on our LGBTQIA+ parent research ads. While frustrating to read, we’re excited to share this work to shine light on the stigma researchers & families face in digital spaces. 🔗 doi.org/10.2196/79080

✨ REGISTRATION OPEN! ✨ I’ll be speaking (1:35pm ET) at the NIH Workshop for Early Career Investigators in HIV, hosted by NIH OAR 🎤 Join us to talk NIH resources, funding, and advancing #EndingTheHIVepidemic. 🔗 www.scgcorp.com/eciworkshop2...

A retired civil engineer tried to join my lecture today. Why? “After 50 years, I realize psychology is IT even though in my youth I mocked it. You deal with happiness and wellbeing. That’s LIFE.” And you chose my CLASS? Well, now I’m inspired.

#NLPA2025 Summit registration is open. Excited to soon learn from and be in community with other Latinx psychologist. If you haven’t already, consider attending this timely conference. Hope to see you in Texas! www.nlpa.ws/2025-confere...

Happy to share that I passed the EPPP today! 🎉 In Illinois, this comes after completing supervised hours, which I fulfilled through pro bono asylum evaluations and therapy with unaccompanied minors from around the world. Grateful for the chance to serve, and excited for licensure!

Reflexive practice doesn't need to be esoteric. Just in time before Fall: the SpORE Manual is now live and open access on OSF: osf.io/rx4bn SpORE is a modular, beginner-friendly framework to support reflexive practice in applied learning, designed for both instructors and trainees.

Happy to be back at Yale as a panelist for Yale Ciencia Academy—5 years after being a fellow. Full circle. 💫 Grateful to share space with brilliant minds & talk about making change in academia. Thank you Yale, Mónica, Giovanna & crew for building this incredible community. 💜 #AcademicLife

📣 HIRING! The Health Equity and Action Lab (@ UIUC) is looking for a Coordinator to support an NIH-funded study on parents. 💼 Start by 9/1 📍 Champaign, IL ✍️ Apply: [email protected] (CV + cover letter) RT to help us find someone great! 💜 #AcademicJobs #PsychologyJobs #HealthEquity

Folks have started reaching out again, so here’s your reminder: I will be reviewing PhD applications this fall! 📅 Deadline: Nov 15, 2025 🔗 Info: publish.illinois.edu/healthequity... 📨 Questions? [email protected] 🔵 @vjrp.bsky.social #PhDChat #HealthEquity #ClinicalPsych

So proud of @antoniayuxinhua.bsky.social for winning the APS RISE award and presenting her incredible work on her birthday! What a way to celebrate. May every birthday be this inspiring and impactful—congrats, Antonia! And thanks @qmmmmliu.bsky.social for working with us on this project!!!

Huge congratulations to my honors student Flor Quiroz on her graduation from @psychillinois.bsky.social — and to all the amazing grads of 2025! ¡Felicidades, Flor! Watching students cross the stage felt like witnessing the future of our field take flight! #PsychMajor #UIUCGrad2025

I took this survey and took me 3 minutes. Take it!

Just wrapped up the Dr. Sandra J. Finley Teacher Scholar Certificate at UIUC! Taught across 3 semesters, developed a teaching project, engaged in service, and reflected on how/why I teach. Grateful for programs that treat teaching as scholarly work. #Teaching #HigherEd #UIUC #PedagogyMatters

So proud of my amazing master’s and PhD students present their work at #SRCD2025 today! From parenting stigma to psychometrics to intersectional mental health—each one did so great! Thank you to everyone who showed up, and to Chair Dr. Sungha Kang for leading such a meaningful session!

Excited to be joining brilliant colleagues this Saturday for a roundtable on Advancing Developmental Science through Anti-Racist Practices at #SRCD2025 (chaired by @dllabarrie.bsky.social). Come by if you’re interested in building a more equitable science! #DevelopmentalScience #EquityInResearch

One of my amazing friends took our HEAL lab logo and made embroidered polos and zip-ups with our names! The quality is AMAZING! If you’re looking to do something like this, reach out to her! @thedancingbearstitchery on IG or email [email protected]. #AcademicLife #CustomMerch

Wanted to give a big shout-out to my MSPS student @antoniayuxinhua.bsky.social, for presenting her work today at the @psychillinois.bsky.social MSPS Fair! So proud of her incredible work. Also, huge thanks to all the faculty and staff who make this fair possible and support our students’ growth!

Harvard just scrapped it's office of Diversity Inclusion and Belonging and has renamed it the office of campus and community life. They will move focus from underrepresented minorities to first generation and low income students instead. Resegregation comes to Harvard.

Birth rates are falling. But a $5K check doesn't address the top barriers to having children: ✅maternity care deserts ✅no paid leave ✅high maternal mortality rate ✅childcare deserts ✅high cost of infertility treatment yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/birth-rate...

So proud of my grad students presenting at #SRCD2025! Our symposium focuses on how parenting and parental mental health relate to child outcomes across diverse family structures. Come see their work!! @srcdorg.bsky.social @antoniayuxinhua.bsky.social #devpsyc #AcademicSky #PsychSciSky

My very first honors thesis student, Flor Quiroz, presented her work on Latinx parents today at @UIUC’s Undergraduate Research Symposium! She’s poured so much thought, rigor, and heart into this project, and it showed. Here’s to many more! 💫 #ProudMentor #URS2025

Why did no one tell me writing tenure and promotion letters is so fun? Y’all out here gatekeeping the good parts of academia?

Here’s a list of people the Secretary of Health and Human Services says "will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted."