Carter briefed journalists in February 2022: Does Poverty Affect Human Epigenetics?
Dr. Sierra Carter is an assistant professor of Clinical and Community Psychology at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.
Her primary area of research and consultation work is in the area of promoting racial health equity. Carter’s research investigates how psychosocial and contextual stressors can affect both mental and physical health outcomes for marginalized populations. She has had a long-standing interest in the ways that health disparities in Black populations arise and are maintained by psychological, physiological and contextual processes.
A common theme throughout much of her work has been examining how, across a life course, racial discrimination as an acute and chronic stressor can affect development and further exacerbate chronic illnesses and stress-related disorders. Utilizing a risk and resilience framework, her work has also shown differences in Black individuals’ responses to racism-related stress and how culturally-relevant factors, such as racial identity, active coping responses, and Africentric Worldview, exacerbate or protect against the deleterious health effects of racism experiences.
Her interdisciplinary research program integrates psychology, biology, public health, and developmental science to add to research evidence that: (1) multi-level forms of racism experienced across the life course undermines oppressed populations’ health across multiple generations; and (2) translational research must include the development of culturally relevant models for prevention-oriented interventions among marginalized populations.
Her consultation and workshops provided in this area focus on practices that enable and support community discussions on topics related to racism, trauma, colorblind ideologies and historical oppression. She also utilizes a strength-based approach to interactively highlight practices to promote anti-racism and collective action for change.
