Donte Bernard, a graduate student in Clinical Psychology, is the recipient of the 2017 Bernadette Gray-Little Award for Diversity Enhancement in Psychological Research.
The purpose of the Bernadette Gray-Little Awards for Diversity Enhancement in Psychological Research is to encourage and honor students who make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge concerning issues that face diverse populations or that are of concern to diverse populations.
Donte, a fifth-year doctoral student, is receiving this recognition for his work with Dr. Enrique Neblett. Donte’s research examines the impostor phenomenon, or feelings of intellectual incompetence, among African American adolescents and emerging adults. He is interested in individual, cultural, and environmental factors that shape impostor experiences, and his dissertation and several recent lead-authored publications in top outlets such as Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology and the Journal of Counseling Psychology, investigate the relations between racial discrimination, racial identity, psychological distress, and the development and maintenance of the impostor phenomenon. A rising star in the fields of child clinical psychology and African American psychology, Donte is a recipient of the Ford Foundation and National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships. In 2017, he was awarded the Baughman Dissertation Research Award, which recognizes innovative dissertation research, and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology Outstanding Student Diversity Research Award, which recognizes “exceptional contributions to the science of clinical psychology.” A driving force behind Donte’s research is a self-professed commitment to supporting and validating the lived experiences of marginalized groups, and his research is well on its way to advancing knowledge and promoting the mental health and well-being of African American youth.