Presentations and Workshops
About Monique
Monique McKenny is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in Counseling Psychology at the University of Miami. Originally from Philadelphia, Monique holds a Master of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from George Washington University. Monique studies cultural strengths of Black families and specifically, racial socialization practices, which refers to the communication between youth and caregivers on race and racial experiences. She is interested in how racial socialization practices can be incorporated into community-based interventions to support the holistic health of youth as they cope with race-related stressors like discrimination. Monique has coauthored publications on racial stress, clinical practices, protective factors for youth, and community-based programs. Her passion for holistic health and wellness among youth and families extends to her clinical interests as she has trained at the Mailman Center for Child Development and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Monique enjoys engaging with youth, families, and communities on topics of race, culture, and health equity.
Research Workshops
Community-Engaged Programming
Racial Socialization Culturally-Relevant Care
Health Equity Youth and Families Interventions
Passionate about engaging with families, communities, researchers, and clinicians on issues of race and culture.
Exploring how race-related issues influence health and well-being for youth.
My research focuses on how youth and their caregivers engage in communication on race and racial incidents, defined as the process of racial socialization. I am interested in how racial socialization contributes to the positive development of youth of color even as they face stressors like racial discrimination, which so often yield deleterious health outcomes. From this interest, I have served on community-based interventions in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and Miami. To me, therapeutic interventions like these are an exciting marriage of clinical application, research, and community-engagement!
I am committed to sharing knowledge on racial-ethnic protective factors and clinical considerations in outlets like academic journals for the mental health community as well as directly with youth, families, and practitioners. Motivated by the interplay between research and practice, my dissertation is informed by my interest in integrated health systems and holistic health. My study seeks to explore the protective function of racial socialization on Black adolescent health outcomes. I am investigating whether parental racial socialization practices can support youth in understanding, navigating, and coping with racial stressors, yielding more positive health outcomes across social, emotional, and physical domains. As a scientist-practitioner, I love bringing research, conversation, and clinical considerations to youth, families, researchers, and practitioners to extend the reach of important scholarship.