- Email:
- wolny@iu.edu
- Department:
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Campus:
- IU Bloomington
- Major:
- Clinical Science
- Graduation year:
- expected 2026
J is a fifth-year doctoral student in Clinical Science, mentored by Dr. Bill Hetrick. They earned their B.A. in Cognitive Science from Occidental College in 2017. After graduation, J worked for three years as a research coordinator in the Department of Neurology at USC Keck School of Medicine and also served as a research assistant at UCLA’s Laboratory for Clinical and Affective Psychophysiology.
J’s research integrates social psychology with health determinants frameworks to study mental health, focusing on racial and cultural factors. They investigate how psychosis-spectrum conditions are assessed and understood across different demographic groups. J uses advanced statistical techniques, such as Item Response Theory (IRT) and Measurement Invariance Testing, to enhance the accuracy and fairness of mental health evaluations. Additionally, they explore how experiences like racial discrimination affect the perception and measurement of paranoia and other psychotic-like experiences among People of Color.
Currently based in Paris, France, with support from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program Research Award, J is expanding their research to explore global health disparities among people of African descent. They are collaborating with researchers at Pôle GHU Psychiatrie Précarité Paris and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) to investigate why African migrants in France experience psychotic disorders at rates three times higher than French natives.
At Indiana University, J has received several fellowships and awards, including:
· NIH F31 - Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award
· NIH T32 - Clinical Translational Science Training Fellowship
· Sharon Stephens Brehm Excellence in Research Award
· Sharon Stephens Brehm Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences Fellowship
· National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Honorable Mention)
· Ford Foundation (Honorable Mention)