CRPSIR research assistant graduates with honors

June 2, 2015

Kemar Prussien, who has worked with Janis Whitlock in the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery (CRPSIR) for the last two years, graduated with honors in psychology this year. While her main interest is in sickle cell anemia, seeing Dr. Whitlock speak during a class earlier in her Cornell career led her to pursue working with CRPSIR. During her time as a research assistant in the BCTR she pursued her interest in psychological processes related to stress and challenging health conditions - for the individual who is experiencing the stress and his or her family.

Working with CRPSIR was so influential an experience that she chose to write her honors thesis on a self-injury topic: Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Self-Worth: Psychosocial Influences on the Relationship between Threats to Self-Worth and NSSI. She also co-authored a paper during her time in the BCTR, Predictors of Self-Injury Cessation and Subsequent Psychological Growth: Results of a Probability Sample Survey of Students in Eight Universities and Colleges.

Next Kemar is off to study with Dr. Bruce Compas, a leading sickle cell anemia scholar, at Vanderbilt University.