Dr. Aerika Brittian Loyd 

(she/her)

Dr. Aerika Brittian Loyd is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the director of the Youth Health and Development Lab at the University of California, Riverside. She earned her PhD in Human Development and Child Study from Tufts University and completed postdoctoral training at the Prevention Research Center at Arizona State University.
Dr. Loyd is an interdisciplinary and community-engaged developmental scientist who studies race-related social stressors and cultural protective factors among Black and Latine youth and families. She offers recommendations for culturally informed youth practice, prevention, and policy. Her research on the connections between racial stress, health, and development in African American justice-involved youth has been funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the Russell Sage Foundation. She has also received funding from the National Science Foundation to investigate the links between science and healthcare career interests and ethnic/racial identity in diverse urban youth. Dr. Loyd's research on youth of color in the United States and youth in South Africa has been published in various academic journals, including Child Development, Child Development Perspectives, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Additionally, Dr. Loyd was an active member of the Society for Research in Child Development's Equity and Justice committee for five years, two of which she served as Co-Chair. She has also collaborated with several professional organizations to advance their diversity, equity, and justice efforts.

Dr. Eui Kyung Kim

 (she/her)

Eui Kyung Kim, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Kim's research focuses on understanding the pathways to risk and resilience among underrepresented populations in K-12 schools, including social-emotional screening and intervention, perceptions of school climate and social inclusion, and multiculturally responsive graduate recruitment, retention, and training. She currently serves as an Editorial Fellow with School Psychology Review.

Emily Esposito

(she/her)

Emily Esposito is a fourth-year PhD student in the Riverside Social and Spatial Cognition lab, where she studies attitudes, contexts, and identity. In her time at UCR, Emily has studied gay migration, which is the process by which sexual minority people (those who do not identify as straight) leave places that are not gay-friendly and move to places that are gay-friendly. With the help of her undergraduate RAs, she has also studied what contributes to perceptions of gentrification, and how gentrified places impact marginalized racial groups’ sense of belonging. Her current research focuses on sexual minority people’s identity development, and how sexual minority people’s environments impact their belonging and well-being. Overall, Emily’s research investigates how places and contexts affect people in different ways, based on their identities. Through her research, Emily wants to gain a better understanding of how people are affected by the world, and in doing so, she hopes to make the world a better and more equitable place.