Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

April Highlander, Ph.D. (Rhode Island Hospital & The Miriam Hospital, 9/1/23-8/31/25) graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in psychology from West Virginia University in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital in 2023. She received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for her research on parental socialization. In 2023, she began her postdoctoral fellowship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University within the Research Fellowship Program’s Child Mental Health T32 (2023-2024) and transitioned to the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) T32 (2024-2025) under the mentorship of Drs. Jennifer Wolff and Anthony Spirito. April's research has focused on social-ecological factors of risk and resilience in the context of parent and child well-being, with a particular focus on underserved and marginalized families. Her commitment to this line of research is evidenced by her receipt of prestigious fellowships including NIMH's Child Intervention, Prevention, & Services (CHIPS) fellowship and NIH's Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity for Clinical Care Training Program. April is extremely grateful for the guidance of the mentors who have supported her including (but not limited to) Mr. Rick Eades, Drs. Cheryl McNeil, Deborah Jones, Justin Parent, Jennifer Wolff, Anthony Spirito, and Stephanie Parade. She would also like to thank her parents, family, friends, and her fiancé Khristopher, for all their love and support that have made this journey possible.