USF College of Arts and Sciences doctoral student Kendall Smith is the recipient of
a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
The fellowship will provide Smith, who is earning her PhD in clinical psychology, with a $37,000 stipend to devote time to her research.
“Time in a program that is as busy and rigorous as USF’s is so crucial, so having
more of financial support is huge,” she explained. “The support also is extremely
helpful for disseminating findings at research conferences and other professional
development opportunities. Being an NSF Graduate Research Fellow can mean a lot to
others in the scientific community. I firmly believe the value of collaboration is
so important when conducting research to have diverse perspectives and stronger impacts
on the communities we try to reach. [It] gives me greater opportunities to access
other exceptional professionals around the world to improve the quality of my work
and reach lay audiences.”
She also adds that she views the fellowship as “a responsibility to contribute to
the broader scientific community and to mentor others, helping to advance knowledge
and create positive future impact for the field of psychology and related disciplines.”
Smith will begin her fellowship this fall working with Dr. Edelyn Verona, professor in the Department of Psychology and co-director of the Center for Justice, Research and Policy, as her advisor. She is expected to complete the fellowship in the Fall of 2029.
The aim of her research, which will be the basis for her thesis, aims to address issues
of inequity in the criminal legal system, externalizing behaviors, and bias among
system-involved populations.
She wants to understand more about how contextual information may alter how individuals
conceptualize the externalizing construct, which represents a liability toward disruptive,
impulsive and disinhibited behaviors.
“I am interested in understanding if context such as community and systemic representations
of inequity and sociodemographic variables may be biasing the extent to which current
behavioral indicators of externalizing (e.g., substance use, aggression, etc.) are
a true reflection of the construct and are measured differently across different levels
of disadvantage,” she added.
“Dr. Edelyn Verona’s experience in the field will be essential in reaching these goals
through individual mentorship as well as connections with other professionals and
community organizations. One way this has already happened is getting connected to
Dr. Keanan Joyner, assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, who has also
provided support for statistical modeling in my application proposal and will serve
as an additional mentor for the project.”
“Dr. Verona and criminology professor Dr. Bryanna Fox lead our lab and the Center
for Justice Research and Policy (CJRP), which is a multidisciplinary organization committed
to the study of crime, violence, and social justice policy,” she added. “As a student
in the CJRP, I have opportunities to disseminate my research with community practitioners
and policy makers and collaborate with other leaders. This way, my research can be
well-informed from multiple perspectives and has greater opportunities for informing
real change in affected communities.”
Smith said that as a psychology student she aims to help people and better understand
human behavior.
“I’ve become especially passionate in conducting research that not only influences
the field, but also practice and policy and positively influences the people who are
negatively impacted by inequitable systems, crime, and antisocial behavior,” she added.
“Pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology will and has already allowed me to further
my understandings in these areas and reach these goals.”
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