Assistant Professor of Counseling and Psychology at Georgia State University
About
Marisa Franco received her PhD and master of science in counseling psychology at the University of Maryland. She received her bachelor of science degree from New York University in applied psychology. She has published multiple empirical articles and a book chapter on her research, which focuses on the health effects of racial identity invalidation — denying an individual's racial identity — for mixed race individuals. She has also investigated racial identity of mixed race individuals internationally, in Trinidad, where she conducted a qualitative examination of the racial identity of Trinidadian douglas, who are of mixed race African/South Indian descent. Marisa has done clinical work at the University of Maryland's Counseling and Health Center, Howard University, and a local domestic violence shelter. She is interested in multiculturally competent therapy and outreach to increase therapy usage amongst marginalized populations. She received an international grant to conduct research in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, which involved culturally adapting an intervention. Marisa has received numerous awards for her research and service including the Flagship Fellowship, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the University of Maryland All S.T.A.R. Award, the Ethnic Minority Achievement Award and the Deans Dissertation Research Initiative Award. She began a position as an assistant professor of counseling psychology at Georgia State in the fall of 2017.
Current Work:
Multiracial people are discriminated against not just for their self-defined race, but also for the race that they are perceived as. This research project examines the impact of "identity incongruent discrimination" on Multiracial people's racial identity, while controlling for relationships between traditional discrimination and racial identity. Furthermore, this study will examine whether the impact of identity incongruent discrimination on mental health may differ depending on the type of racial identity that the Multiracial person espouses.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Racial identity invalidation, multiracial, race, racism, racial identity
