Dr. Shauna M. Cooper (Ph.D.) is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Strengths, Assets, and Resilience (StAR) Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She is also a Faculty Fellow at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and Center for Faculty Excellence. Dr. Cooper is also a Non-Resident fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC.
Dr. Cooper’s areas of expertise include examining how social and cultural contexts shapes development and well-being (e.g., mental health; school adjustment). Highlighting the individual and interactive influences of family, school, and community contexts, her work spans several areas of expertise, including the racial and cultural context of parenting, father involvement and engagement among African American fathers, girls’ health and well-being, rural youth development, and community-level risk and protective factors. Dr. Cooper’s research has been funded by several agencies and organizations, including the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities, the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, and the distinguished National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award. Dr. Cooper is the Interim Editor-in-Chief of Child Development and an Editorial Board Member for several developmental science, psychology, and multidisciplinary journals.