Email: ug264@nyu.edu
Program: PhD in Counseling Psychology
Year entered Program: 2023
Research Interests: Trauma-informed and culturally-adapted interventions; systemic violence, trauma, and oppression; community based participatory methods and mixed methods; juvenile legal and child welfare systems-change.
Principal Advisor(s): Dr. Shabnam Javdani
Research Description/Bio:
Uma is a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Shabnam Javdani. Her research interests lie in understanding how the juvenile legal and child welfare systems respond to youth and families, in order to develop and test trauma-informed, culturally-adapted, and community-based interventions for those who have been historically and currently marginalized and minoritized. She is committed to building research-community partnerships to inform her work and increase access to mental health services in under-resourced communities.
Uma's previous scholarship has focused on the implementation of trauma-informed and culturally-responsive trainings for staff in the child welfare system, as well as the development of a healing and empowerment intervention for women who had been impacted by gun violence and/or incarceration. Uma received her B.S. in Applied Psychology from NYU and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.