Deborah Rivas-Drake

Deborah Rivas-Drake, is a Professor of Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan. Together with the Contexts of Academic + Socioemotional Adjustment (CASA) Lab, she examines how school, peer, family, and community settings can support adolescents in navigating issues related to race and ethnicity, and how these experiences inform young people’s academic, socioemotional, and civic development.

The overarching goal of her work is to illuminate promising practices that disrupt racism and xenophobia and that help set diverse young people on trajectories of positive contribution to their schools and communities. Her research has been funded by NSF, the Spencer Foundation, and the W.T. Grant Foundation. Her co-authored book, Below the Surface: Talking with Teens about Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (Princeton University Press), received the Social Policy Book Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence and the Eleanor Maccoby Award in Developmental Psychology from the American Psychological Association.

She is an invited contributor to the SRCD State of the Science report on Improving Intergroup Attitudes and Interactions among Youth, Chair of the SRCD Publications Committee, member of the Inclusion, Equity, and Social Justice Committee of SRA, and former Associate Editor of Developmental Psychology and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.

In addition to her academic publications, she has lent her expertise more broadly by collaborating with school leaders and district policymakers to develop translational activities for educators; in writings and webinars for parents and educators; and by consulting on race and ethnicity issues in youth for the Collaborative on Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Sesame Workshop, and Committee for Children.