People – Earnshaw Lab

Principal Investigator

Valerie Earnshaw, PhD

Associate Professor
Human Development and Family Sciences
University of Delaware

earnshaw@udel.edu
Curriculum Vitae | Google Scholar

My interest in social psychological research was sparked when I was an undergraduate at the Pennsylvania State University and had the opportunity to work with Drs. Sarah Gervais and Terri Vescio as a research assistant on projects related to prejudice, power, and objectification. This work inspired me to earn a PhD in social psychology at the University of Connecticut under the mentorship of Dr. Diane Quinn. During this time, I pursued coursework and research opportunities to understand of how stigma impacts individuals. I also earned graduate certificates in health psychology and quantitative research methods. Through this training, I obtained a theoretical background in stigma and health processes, as well as methodological and statistical skills with which to study stigma and health.

I developed a foundation in HIV science via pre- and postdoctoral training. I completed predoctoral training via the NIMH Social Processes of HIV/AIDS Training Program at the University of Connecticut (T32MH074387) under the mentorship of Dr. Seth Kalichman. I then pursued postdoctoral training via the NIMH Interdisciplinary HIV Prevention Training Program at Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (T32MH020031) under the mentorship of Dr. Jeannette Ickovics. I spent two years as an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and Associate Scientific Researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, where I received early career training in child- and family-centered outcomes research (K12HS022986) under the mentorship of Dr. Laura Bogart. I then moved to the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware, where I received additional training in substance use disorder research and intervention science (K01DA042881) under the mentorship of Dr. John Kelly.

I am currently an Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. My research aims to understand and intervene in associations between stigma and health inequities throughout the lifespan. Much of my work is with people living with chronic illnesses, including substance use disorders, HIV, and mental illness. I also co-chair the Changing Perceptions and Stigma committee of Delaware’s Behavioral Health Consortium.

Current Lab Members

Heather Clark
2024-

hclark@udel.edu

Heather is the lead research technician on the UDisclose project. She is responsible for supporting the project design, implementation, scheduling and interviewing all clients at multiple sites. Heather plans to pursue a degree in HDFS to further understand and how stigma is related to health inequities. Outside of the lab, Heather enjoys spending time with her family.

E. Carly Hill
2017-

ehill@udel.edu

Carly is a Research Associate II with the Stigma & Health Inequities Lab and the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware. She graduated from the University of Delaware with a major in Health Sciences and a minor in Medical Social Services. When not doing research, Carly enjoys live music shows, cooking and reading.

Mohammad Mousavi
2022-

mmousavi@udel.edu

Mohammad Mousavi is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware and a Research Assistant in the Stigma & Health Inequities Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Valerie Earnshaw. Mohammad holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a Bachelor in Psychology. As a research assistant, Mohammad is involved in several national and international NIH-funded projects, including: 1) examining the longitudinal impact of stigma mechanisms on treatment engagement in emerging adults, 2) developing a disclosure intervention to reduce social isolation and facilitate recovery among individuals in treatment for opioid use disorder, 3) implementing stigma reduction tools via a popular teletraining platform to decrease clinician stigma and improve HIV testing, prevention, and linkage to care in Malaysia, 4) evaluating the effectiveness of the enCompass and responding to addiction interventions in improving knowledge of addiction in collaboration with the Addiction Policy Forum, and 5) conducting a statewide needs assessment to identify the met and unmet needs of individuals who could benefit from HIV prevention services, in collaboration with the Delaware HIV Planning Council. In all these research projects, his mentor, Dr. Valerie Earnshaw, is a principal investigator.

Virginia Sticinski
2019-

esticins@udel.edu LinkedIn

Virginia Sticinski is a Ph.D student in the Human Development and Family Science program. Her research interests involve investigating age, racial and ethnic disparities in services and social support access among families with children with disabilities and mental health challenges. She also has an interest in leadership development in the disabilities field and is conducting research on effective practices in leadership development through the National Leadership Consortium. Virginia has over 20 years’ experience as an educator, and is the proud parent of four boys, two of whom are on the autism spectrum. As an educator and a parent, Virginia has been working with service providers for over 19 years. She is an active volunteer for the Delaware Special Olympics and the Autism Society of Delaware, and serves on the committee for the Mental Health Association of Delaware (MHA) and the Autism Delaware newsletter, The Sun.

Alumni Researchers and Graduate Students

Alumni Graduate Students

Xueli Qiu, PhD
2020-2024
Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
xqiu12@jh.edu LinkedIn

Xueli Qiu is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research interests include intimate partner violence, gender, stigma, and mental health. She is passionate about exploring the role of gender as a determinant in health outcome disparities and promoting both gender and health equity. She holds a PhD in Human Development and Family Sciences from the University of Delaware, an MA in Public Management from Beijing Normal University, and a BA in Sociology from Central South University. In addition to her academic pursuits, Xueli is a parent to a toddler and a lab mix, living with her partner in Northern Virginia. In her free time, she loves cooking and photography.

Dissertation: Gender, Stigma, and Mental Helath Among Young Adults in the United States

Ginnie Sawyer-Morris, PhD
2020-2022
Assistant Research Scientist at Friends Research Institute
gsawyermorris@friendsresearch.org LinkedIn

Dr. Sawyer-Morris is an early career research scientist with experience designing, implementing, and evaluating public health interventions addressing health disparities and addiction. Her research interests are health equity-focused and currently center on the design, use, and evaluation of digital health tools (e.g., data dashboards, digital health apps, digital therapeutics) with the aim of improving healthcare access and quality for historically underrepresented populations, specifically individuals with justice involvement and substance use disorder.

Dissertation: Exploring Gender-Specific Differences in Substance Use Disorder Recovery Capital: A Multiple-Group Latent Growth Modeling and Random Forest Approach

Natalie Brousseau, PhD
2017-2021
Postdoctoral Fellow at Rutgers University
n.brousseau@rutgers.edu LinkedIn

Natalie Brousseau’s research aims to understand and intervene in the association between stigma, health inequities, and treatment outcomes among people living with HIV, substance use disorders, and other chronic health conditions.

Dissertation: Psychosocial Processes and Treatment Outcomes among People in Recovery from Opioid Use Disorders

Alumni Undergraduate Srudents