Henry Willis, a graduate student in Clinical Psychology, is the recipient of a 2019 Baughman Dissertation Research Award.
The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at UNC offers the Earl and Barbara Baughman Dissertation Research Award annually to 2-3 top researchers within the department. The purpose of this award is to promote and support innovative dissertation research in our department and to support award recipients in their completion of their dissertation projects.
Henry won for his dissertation titled “Developing a Culturally-Adapted Mobile Mental Health Intervention: A Multi-Study, Mixed Methods Approach.” African American young adults suffer from negative mental health symptoms at either similar or greater rates than that of White Americans, yet they are 7 times less likely to have access to or receive effective treatments. In light of this, Henry’s dissertation will not only explore the impact of more contemporary sociocultural risk and protective factors (i.e., online racial discrimination and racial identity beliefs) on the mental health of African American young adults, but it will also lead to the development of a culturally-adapted mHealth intervention (i.e., iPhone app) for mental health, which will help reduce disparities in access to and utilization of evidence-based mental health treatments among African Americans young adults. He will receive a Baughman Dissertation Award of $6,000 to support his innovative research and dissertation project. Congratulations, Henry!