Jillian Scheer

Accepting Students: Dr. Scheer will be accepting new doctoral graduate students for the 2027-2028 academic year.

Biography

Jillian R. Scheer, PhD, is a licensed counseling psychologist, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island, and Director of the Minority Stress & Trauma (MST) Lab. Dr. Scheer is also a research affiliate at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at the Yale School of Public Health.

Dr. Scheer earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston College and completed a predoctoral clinical internship at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s/West Hospital in New York City. Dr. Scheer also completed an NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Scheer is the author of 98 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Dr. Scheer’s research has been supported by grants from NIAAA, NIMHD, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the American Psychological Foundation. Dr. Scheer’s work has been recognized through several awards (e.g., NIMHD Research Institute Scholar, NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health).

Research

Dr. Scheer’s research focuses on the biopsychosocial factors that shape alcohol and other drug use, posttraumatic stress, and chronic pain among underserved populations (e.g., sexual and gender minority people, women living with HIV, those with lived experience of sexual and relationship violence). Dr. Scheer’s work combines ecological momentary assessment, longitudinal and experimental methods, physiological stress paradigms, qualitative research, and randomized controlled trials to identify mechanisms of risk and resilience. Dr. Scheer also studies barriers and facilitators to help-seeking and care engagement and develops scalable interventions to improve mental and behavioral health outcomes.

Undergraduate and graduate students interested in learning more about this work or joining my research team are encouraged to contact Dr. Scheer at jillian.scheer@uri.edu.

Education

  • Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, Yale School of Public Health, National Institute of Mental Health T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2020
  • Mount Sinai St. Luke’s/West Hospital, Clinical Residency, 2018
  • Boston College, Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, 2018
  • Boston College, M.A. in Mental Health Counseling, 2012
  • Rutgers University, B.A. in Psychology and Sociology, 2009

Selected Publications

Please see my full and up-to-date publication lists via my profiles on Google Scholar, NCBI, and ResearchGate

* denotes mentored trainee at the time of publication

Scheer, J. R., Salim, S. R., **Girard, R., **Epshteyn, G., Chasten, N., Behari, K., Bochicchio, L. A., Ford, J. V., Veldhuis, C. B., Wall, M. M., & Hughes, T. L. (in press). Death-related thoughts, suicidal ideation, and substance use risk among sexual minority women: The role of sexual violence victimization. Archives of Suicide Research.

Scheer, J. R., Zabelski, S., **Epshteyn, G., **Girard, R., Cascalheira, C. J., Shaw, T. J., Helminen, E. C., Messinger, A., & Edwards, K. M. (2026). Trauma, marginalization, and low-resource settings: Understanding sexual and gender minority people’s help-seeking and service utilization experiences. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. 1–28. Advance online publication. 

**Chasten, N., Katz, B., **Rashkovsky, K., Jaipuriyar, V., Weiss, N. H., Jackson, S. D., Batchelder, A. W., Sullivan, T. P., & Scheer, J. R. (in press). Linguistic markers of interpretation bias in non-trauma narratives and associations with PTSD among sexual minority cisgender women, transgender men and women, and gender diverse people. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.

Jaipuriyar, V., Behari, K., **Rashkovsky, K., **Girard, R., Sherman, A., Chasten, N., **Epshteyn, G., Lee, J., Helminen, E. C., & Scheer, J. R. (2026). Brief transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy and expressive writing for hazardous drinking and posttraumatic stress symptoms among sexual and gender minority adults: Pilot trial protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 52, 101666.

Hughes, T. L., Scheer, J. R., Bochicchio, L., Drabble, L. A., Emslie, C., Whiteley, D., Lunnay, B., Ward, P. R., & Lyons, A. (2026). Sober curiosity among LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Women’s Health, 22, 17455057261467913.

Behari, K., Helminen, E. C., Zaso, M. J., & Scheer, J. R. (2026). Co-occurring daily minority stressors and dissociation among trauma-exposed sexual minority women, transgender, and nonbinary people. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 39(3), 517–528. 

Littleton, H., Edwards, K. M., Kelly, M. T., Wheeler, L. A., Mohamed, N., Higgins, M., Bradshaw, J., Zamundu, A., & Scheer, J. R. (2026). The Healthy Families Bright Futures Program: Open pilot to evaluate acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of an online dating violence and alcohol prevention program for LGBTQ+ youth and their caregivers. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 10.1080/10926771.2026.2646520. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2026.2646520

Scheer, J. R., Jackson, S. D., Cascalheira, C. J., **Behari, K., Helminen, E. C., Batchelder, A. W., & Sullivan, T. P. (2025). Daily minority stressors, threat appraisal, and identity concealment among trauma-exposed sexual minority women and transgender and gender-diverse people. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 72(3), 211–222.

Scheer, J. R., Mereish, E. H., Gilmore, A. K., Cascalheira, C. J., Helminen, E. C., Dobani, F., **Behari, K., **Pirog, S. A., Jackson, S. D., Sullivan, T. P., & Batchelder, A. W. (2024). Examining daily self-efficacy, minority stressors, and alcohol and other drug use among trauma-exposed sexual minority women and transgender and gender-diverse people. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 58(12), 832-844.

Scheer, J. R., **Helminen, E. C., **Cascalheira, C. J., Jaipuriyar, V., **Shaw, T. J., **Zabelski, A. S., **Behari, K., **Pirog, S. A., Batchelder, A. W., Possemato, K., Hughes, T. L. & Sullivan, T. P. (2023). Probable PTSD, PTSD symptom severity, and comorbid PTSD and hazardous drinking among sexual minority women compared to heterosexual women: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 102, 102283

 

Selected Honors and Awards

  • 2026 Ally of the Year Award Presented to the Minority Stress & Trauma Lab on behalf of the Gender & Sexuality Center at the University of Rhode Island.  
  • 2022 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Loan Repayment Program Renewal Application, L60AA028666
  • 2022 NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health Science Policy Scholar Travel Award for the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD) 2022 Annual Meeting
  • 2022 First-authored manuscript chosen to be an Article of Public Interest in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
  • 2021 Cobb-Jones Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University
  • 2020 Membership Award, APA Division 56
  • 2019 The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Institute Scholar
  • 2019 Laura Bassi Scholarship

Selected Student Honors and Awards

  • American Psychological Association Division 50 Student Research (SoAP) Grant Recipient, Rachel Girard, MA (2026)
  • Undergraduate Student Poster Award, College of Health Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Makayla Leon, BA (2026)
  • Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) Student Merit Award, Katya Rashkovksy, BA (2026)
  • Professor Mark Wood Memorial Endowment Fund, University of Rhode Island, Rachel Girard, MA (2026)
  • Dean’s Fellowship for New Students 2026, University of Rhode Island, Natalie Chasten, BA (2026 – 2028)
  • Dean’s Fellowship for New Students 2025, University of Rhode Island, Katya Rashkovsky, BA (2025 – 2027)
  • American Psychological Association LGBTQ+ Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Syracuse University, Cory Cascalheira, BA, LSAA (2023)
  • Outstanding Service Award, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Uchechi Onyenkpa (2023)
  • Syracuse University Scholar, Arts & Sciences Scholar, Newhouse Scholar, Floyd Allport Research Awards, TJ Shaw (2022)

More Information

Download Curriculum Vitae