Stephanie I. Coard

• Associate Professor
• Human Development and Family Studies, UNCG
• sicoard@uncg.edu
• (336) 334-4666
• 153 Stone Building
• http://www.uncg.edu/hdf/facultystaff/Coard/coard.html

Stephanie Irby Coard, Ph.D. is currently a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G). Prior to joining UNC-G in 2006, Dr. Coard held appointments at Duke University (2002-2006) in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS), and the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. She is also a former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, Child Study Center (1998-2002). Dr. Coard earned a B.A. from North Carolina State University in both Psychology and Business Management; an M.S.Ed. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania; and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University. She completed a Pediatric Clinical Pre-Doctoral Internship in the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, University of Maryland Medical Center and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Division of Adolescent Medicine, University of Maryland Medical Center. A psychologist and clinical researcher, Dr. Coard primarily conducts research on youth conduct problems, antisocial behavior and violence; racial, ethnic and cultural influences on child mental health treatment and prevention; and cultural adaptations of interventions and community dissemination. Her understanding of socio-cultural factors as they relate to the etiology, treatment and prevention of child mental health problems has informed her work on a number of federally funded studies. Most notably, she was awarded a Scientist Development Award (K01) from the National Institute for Mental Health to pursue research on translation, implementation and testing of clinically efficacious interventions into community settings; and in culturally adapting and testing those interventions to ensure successful dissemination within urban and inner-city communities. A primary focus of this research has been the development of culturally-relevant strategies to assist African American parents to prevent and manage common behavior problems of young children. She has also been awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. These funded studies have resulted in the development of an observational measure of racial socialization and a parenting curriculum and written materials. The Parent-Child Race-Related Observational Measure (PC-RROM) is a parent-child observational measure of the race-related communication and interaction. Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies (BPSS) is an evidence-based culturally relevant parenting program for use African American families for preventing and managing common childhood behavior problems. Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies – Child (BPSS-C) is a strengths- and culturally-based program that aims to promote cultural, social and emotional health and academic success within African American children. The BPSS programs have been developed to incorporate the most successful strategies used by parenting and child development specialists, while drawing on the strengths, unique parental strategies and processes inherent in Black families (e.g., racial socialization).