Biography

Tessa is a sixth year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of Rhode Island. Her research interests focus on health disparities in substance use. In particular, she has an interest in protective factors for substance use in multiracial individuals and people from other minoritized racial/ethnic groups. Tessa completed her M.A. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Rhode Island in May 2020 and received her B.S. in psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2013. Before coming to URI, she did research with the VA Boston Medical HealthCare System and with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Dissertation: A qualitative exploration of alcohol and other drug use among multiracial young adults, defended June 2022.

Thesis: Racial discrimination, racial identity affiliation, and alcohol use in multiracial individuals, defended April 2020