Marlena Debreaux

Marlena Debreaux is a current doctoral student in the Community Research and Action Program at Vanderbilt University. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology from the University of Louisville and American University, as well as a master’s degree in Community Research and Action from Vanderbilt University. Her studies have led her to collaborate on projects as diverse as youth violence prevention to studying the effects of virtually witnessing police brutality on mental health outcomes. An aspiring developmental critical race scholar, Marlena applies the tenants of critical race theory to the study of the normal developmental experiences of U.S. residing African descendant youth in understudied contexts, to the analysis of how racism inhibits mental health functioning, and the identification of protective factors that may mitigate the effects of racial harm on youth.