EMILY A. HERRY, PhD

Emily Herry is a postdoctoral research fellow at The Ohio State University College of Nursing Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management, and Complex Care. Dr. Herry works in the Identity, Resilience, and Intersectional Science Lab, led by Dr. Christina Dyar. Prior to completing their PhD, Dr. Herry worked as a primary instructor, research fellow, and graduate student in the Lifespan Development area of the Psychology department at North Carolina State University. During their time at NCSU, Dr. Herry worked in the Social Development Lab with Dr. Kelly Lynn Mulvey. During their undergraduate at UNC - Greensboro, Dr. Herry worked in the Development and Understanding of Children's Knowledge lab with Drs. Janet Boseovski and Stuart Marcovitch.

Broadly, Dr. Herry's research focuses on two interrelated areas: (1) bystanders’ response to victimization, especially identity-based victimization, across contexts and (2) contextual factors and stigma-related stressors that contribute to mental health outcomes and development across the lifespan among sexual and gender minority individuals. Dr. Herry is especially interested in these lines of work with gender minority people.

Some research questions Dr. Herry aims to answer are:  How can we encourage positive bystander intervention in response to identity-based victimization?  What social and contextual factors influence the mental health and development of sexual and gender minority people?  How do transgender and gender-diverse people come to think about and engage with their identities throughout their development?

Advocacy and Service: Dr. Herry's commitment to advocacy and service is at the heart of everything they do. For example, they have created and shared guidebooks that provided guidance to teachers on how to promote an inclusive class environment for sexual and gender minority students. They have also shared their work on how to engage with one’s own identity and attend to the diverse identities of students and participants to create more inclusive research and teaching environments. Professionally, they also serve on the Steering Committee and Communications Committee as the early career representative for the Society for Research in Child Development Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity/Expression Caucus.