I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
I earned a B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology and Political Science from University of Ghana, M.Sc. in (Developmental) Psychology from the University of Utah, and PhD in (Social) Psychology from Clark University. I completed my postdoctoral training with the Peace & Recovery department at Innovation for Poverty Action/ Princeton University and was recently the Provost Postdoctoral Research Fellow at New York University.
My research program is motivated by my commitment to use research as a tool to understand and address real-world social issues. I take a multi-level approach to examine: 1) how historical and sociopolitical contexts shape the psychological needs that arise for members of groups targeted by collective violence and how these needs can be met; 2) the meanings that victimized groups construct about their experiences of historical and contemporary collective violence; 3) how social psychological theories can be leveraged to develop and evaluate context-relevant interventions among refugees and host community members.
In my free time, I like to travel, read (fantasy & historical non-fiction), cook for/with family and friends, and do an occasional hike stemming from my time in Utah.