Fostering Wellbeing in Racialized Mentoring Environments Workshop

Research has shown that graduate students struggle with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression at higher rates than the general population. Graduate students of color are often exposed to additional risks due to direct experiences with racism in the research environment, effects of vicarious racism, and pressures to assimilate to historically white disciplines. While some stress and uncertainty is unavoidable in graduate training, research mentors have a direct impact on the wellbeing of members of their research group. Developing the skills to recognize and have open conversations about mental health, wellbeing, and racism is key to this process, as is the ability to proactively affirm and engage students’ cultures in research contexts.

Facilitator Bios

Dr. Steve Desir is an Assistant Research Professor in the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. His research interests include racial equity in college admissions, organizational change, and the use of theory-based psychological interventions to facilitate behavioral change. More specifically, Steve is interested in whether insights from social psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics can be used to improve educational experiences for minoritized groups. Steve earned his doctoral degree in Higher Education from USC, and a master’s degree in Education Policy and Management from Harvard. Prior to his studies at USC and HGSE, Steve completed his master’s degree in secondary education from NYU, and earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science at Penn State. 

Dr. Annie Wofford is  an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at Florida State University. Her research interests center on structural inequities within graduate education, and she focuses on the development of equity-minded structures of support in STEM students’ trajectories to and through graduate school. More specifically, she has recently explored how STEM doctoral students develop as mentors, how doctoral students’ mentoring practices are informed by their social identities and experiences, and how departmental cultures guide mentoring structures in STEM through empirical research and a research-practice partnership funded by the Inclusive Graduate Education Network. Wofford has been a research affiliate for several NSF-funded projects about equity in STEM and graduate school trajectories, including projects focused on equity in collegiate computing, Ph.D. pathways for upward transfer computing students, and doctoral students’ experiences in biological sciences. Wofford earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change from the University of California, Los Angeles, a master’s degree in educational administration, a bachelor’s degree in secondary social studies education, and worked in medical school graduate admissions.