Email: jed9632@nyu.edu
Program: PhD in Psychology and Social Intervention
Year entered Program: 2024
Research Interests: Adolescent criminal legal system contact, identity and social exclusion, youth violence prevention, resource scarcity
Principal Advisor(s): Dr. Erin Godfrey, Dr. Shabnam Javdani
Research Description/Bio:
Jarrell E. Daniels is a PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Applied Psychology at New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. His research examines how resilience emerges among youth and emerging adults involved in street networks—such as gangs, crews, and street economies—or those impacted by the criminal legal system. Drawing on the Ecological Resilience Framework and Hidden Talents model, he reframes these networks as secondary developmental spaces that can cultivate adaptive skills, including communication, confidence, cognitive flexibility, and creative problem-solving. Using mixed-method approaches, Jarrell investigates how interventions like Project Restore—a community–government partnership— harness these strengths to reduce violence, prevent incarceration, and expand structural opportunities for social mobility. His work aims to shift policy and practice toward strengths-based, culturally grounded models that address both individual development and the systemic conditions shaping it.