Director

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Ilona S. Yim
Professor of Psychological Science

Ph.D. University of Trier, Germany
ilona.yim@uci.edu
(949) 824-0130

4562 Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway

 

 

 

 

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Graduate Students

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Kennedy Blevins
PhD candidate
blevinsk@uci.edu

I received my B.A. in Psychology with honors from California State University, Long Beach. As an undergraduate, I was a Fellow in the National Institutes of Health funded BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) research training program.

My research interests center around how cultural context influences the relation between health, health relevant outcomes, and well-being. I am especially interested in the role of stereotype on coping in African-American women, and how this relates to physical health and well-being. I was awarded a Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship for my dedication to this area of research, as well as mentorship and teaching.

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Olivia Silke
NSF Graduate Research Fellow and PhD candidate
osilke@uci.edu
Linkedin

I am interested in risk (e.g., stress) and protective (e.g., mindfulness) factors during the perinatal period, particularly among low-income populations. To support these interdisciplinary interests, my training is focused on salivary bioscience, community-based research, and health psychology. Outside of research, I am passionate about bringing trauma-informed practices into academic settings and I enjoy painting and spending time outdoors with my dog.

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Peiyi Wang

PhD candidate
peiyi.wang@uci.edu

I am broadly interested in how stress and social stigmatization influence health among racial/ethnic minorities.

Currently, I study the association between acculturative stress and maladaptive eating behavior among racial/ethnic minority students and the mechanism and protective factors in this relation.

Moreover, I am studying whether culture-related phenomena such as differences in attribution styles, selves-views and agency might explain systematic differences in weight discrimination. And how weight stigma internalization influences victim’s health.

I always try to maintain my workout routine when I am not very busy. I also enjoy trying out different types of foods and spending time with my pets.

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Angelina Majeno
PhD candidate
angelina.majeno@uci.edu
Google Scholar
LinkedIn

My research focuses on social marginality and its effects on health. Specifically, I investigate how sociocultural stressors, such as discrimination, impact health outcomes through the dysregulation of physiological and biobehavioral systems (e.g., cortisol reactivity and sleep) in ethnic minority youth and emerging adults.

My current research examines how coping can serve as a buffer of the negative effects of discrimination on sleep and how discrimination is associated with cardiovascular reactivity among Latinx adults.

I hold a Master of Arts in Social Ecology from UCI, and Master of Public Health and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Human Development from California State University, Long Beach.

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Precious Araujo
PhD Student
pjaraujo@uci.edu

Linkedin

I am a second-year Psychological Science Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). I hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Psychological Science from UCI. My current research interests focus on identifying psychosocial factors such as self-esteem and social support networks that may buffer the effects of prolonged stress (e.g., parent-child separations) and trauma (e.g., intimate partner violence) on mental health in ethnic minorities, with an emphasis on perinatal mental health. My work aims to foster resilience in these vulnerable communities by understanding what role psychosocial forces play in their physiological processes and psychological health outcomes. I am building on my efforts through UCI’s POWER Initiative by implementing resilience-building workshops and informed action on campus to promote proactive behaviors among minority trauma victims.

 

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Alumni

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Dr. David Busse

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Esmeralda Garcia, Ph.D.

President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley

esmerarg@uci.edu

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Yasmin Barrientos Kofman, Ph.D.

Post-doctoral Fellow at UCLA

ykofman@uci.edu

Broadly, I am interested in the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying health disparities in women of diverse populations. In my research, I employ chronic stress and social ecological frameworks to examine how exposure to gender-based violence in particular (e.g., intimate partner and sexual violence) can perpetuate long-term health problems. I am also interested in factors of personal, cultural, and community resilience that may buffer the detrimental health effects of violence and adversity. As a minor in Quantitative Methods, I enjoy learning and utilizing novel or contemporary statistical techniques that may advance our understanding of this complex issue.

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Zoe Eng

Master’s Degree in Social Ecology

 

 

 

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Undergraduate Research Assistants

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