The MSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies welcomes Dr. Lekie Dwanyen as a tenure-system Assistant Professor to their faculty. She joined MSU in fall 2020 as a Dean's Research Associate (Postdoc) Program and she is beginning her first year as an assistant professor in the tenure system this fall.
“I chose MSU because it is a fitting and supportive home for my scholarship,” Dr. Dwanyen said. “I'm interested in global mental health research with African families and thus attracted to the high sense of value and resources MSU commits to community-engaged scholarship in Africa.”
She also chose to stay at MSU because of her experiences with the Department of Human Development and Family Studies over the last couple of years.
“I am compelled by the department’s commitment to training students in translatable and high-quality prevention and intervention skills and methods,” she said. “I have also been impressed by what students and colleagues have shared with me about their experiences at MSU and knew I could both contribute to and benefit from the mutually supportive and collaborative communities here.”
Dr. Dwanyen’s research examines how mental health is understood, experienced, discussed, and treated in different cultural and community contexts.
“My research interests broadly focus on reducing mental health disparities and more specifically attends to addressing traumatic stress and mental health in families,” Dr. Dwanyen said. “I am interested in strategies to reduce mental health disparities experienced by historically marginalized communities, especially those with a history of exposure to war and systematic violence. My research aligns with the systemic family therapy and global mental health fields to improve both mental and relational health outcomes in marginalized and trauma-affected families.”
She most recently published "Reducing mental health disparities among racially and ethnically diverse populations: A review of couple and family intervention research methods.” She was invited by Drs. Andrea Wittenborn and Kendal Holtrop to collaborate on an article examining strategies to engage racially and ethnically diverse communities in couple and family intervention research in the last decade.
“This article is important because it is poised to help our field and other mental health stakeholders understand the state of research on evidence-based interventions with racially and ethnically diverse couples, children, and families in the last decade, as well as strategies to attend to race, ethnicity, culture, equity, social disparities, and other critical considerations in empirical studies,” she said.
Dr. Dwanyen hopes she can both advance her research while supporting students and future scholars who will build on the field’s attention to culturally and contextually relevant interventions that reach racially and economically diverse clients. This semester, she will be teaching the qualitative research methods class (HDFS 982).
“I enjoy connecting with students in collaborative-teaching and learning spaces and can't wait to do this in a methods class,” she said.
In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Dwanyen loves creative and artistic expression, especially painting. She also enjoys staying active and she loves playing various sports.
“We are excited to welcome Dr. Dwanyen to our department,” Dr. Adrian Blow, chair of MSU HDFS, said. “We are looking for faculty who are passionate about diverse populations, community-engaged scholarship and mentoring our students in those areas, and Dr. Dwanyen specializes in those areas in the realm of mental health.”
To learn more about the MSU Department of Human Development and Family Studies, visit hdfs.msu.edu.
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By Katie Rose Frey