Valerie Earnshaw
Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences
Valerie Earnshaw, PhD
Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Delaware
Pilot Project PI
Biography
Dr. Earnshaw is an Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, at the University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in Social Psychology in 2011 from the University of Connecticut, where she completed additional training in social processes of HIV/AIDS, health psychology, and quantitative research methods. She then pursued post-doctoral training in HIV/AIDS at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University as well as in child- and family-centered health outcomes research at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. She was supported by an early career development award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse between 2017 and 2021. She received the NIH Office of Disease Prevention Early-Stage Investigator Lecture (2019) the Committee on Psychology and AIDS of the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Emerging Leadership Award (2019), and American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest Early Career Award (2020).
Research
Dr. Earnshaw’s research focuses on understanding and addressing associations between stigma and health inequities across the lifespan. She aims to contribute to knowledge of the mechanisms whereby stigma undermines health outcomes and what moderates these relationships in protective ways. She also aims to contribute to interventions to improve the wellbeing of stigmatized children, youth, and families. Much of her current research focuses on stigma associated with substance use disorders, HIV, and mental illness.
