For April's BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month:

We met with Terrill Taylor to discuss his social justice advocacy research in psychology and leadership journey.

Terrill Taylor is a doctoral candidate in the Counseling Psychology program at the University of North Dakota, and a predoctoral intern at the Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Beginning in Fall 2023, Terrill will join the University of Maryland, College Park as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology.

His areas of research focus on issues of race and racism, with specific emphasis on intersectionality, racial disparities in systems of justice, anti-Black racism, and restorative justice.He developed the Restorative Justice Attitudes Scale, a measure designed to investigate individuals’ support for reconciliation and healing processes, which was published in The Counseling Psychologist. He has since used the measure to analyze how race and racism influence individuals’ decision-making when interfaced with systems of justice. It is his intent to develop intervention and prevention mechanisms that will have an impact on dismantling all forms of racism and oppression that restrict Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) from living authentic, healthy, and meaningful lives.

Terrill’s research has received national recognition. His dissertation entitled, Does Race Matter? An Experimental Vignette Study on Harm Severity, College Student Discipline, and Restorative Justice was selected as winner of the 2022 Jeffrey S. Tanaka Memorial Dissertation award on behalf of the APA Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs. Terrill also received the APA Division 45 2022 Outstanding Student Research Award, and he was also the 2020 recipient of the Barbara Smith & Jewell E. Horvat Graduate Student Award for Research on Queer Individuals of Color. In addition, Terrill received an Outstanding Dedication to Social Justice and Liberation in Counseling Psychology Award from the Student Affiliates of Seventeen (APA Division 17).

In his spare time, Terrill enjoys traveling and spending time with his friends and family.

Links:

https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/sites/isrc/scholar-in-residence.html