May 2023
  • Moumina Khan graduated Tufts University with a BA in Clinical Psychology, Marissa Allen & Dylan Reyes graduated from the Boston College Mental Health Counseling program with an MA, and Marina Rakhilin graduated from the Boston College School of Social Work with an MSW. Congrats grads!
  • Marina Rakhilin was awarded the Dean’s Leadership Award as well as the Ann Forest Morgan, Ed.D. Graduate Student Award! Read this article to learn more about Marina's accomplishments at Boston College.
  • Dr. Maggi Price was awarded a grant from the RADS Program, which aims to support interdisciplinary research projects between faculty in different disciplines, departments, and schools across Boston College.
April 2023
  • Lisa Collins, Marina Rakhilin, and Justine Lee attended the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)'s annual conference in Washington, D.C. Lisa presented as a part of the symposium, "Engaging Hard to Reach Populations in Treatment for Depression and Anxiety." Specifically, she gave a talk titled, "Community-Driven Recommendations for Enhancing Transgender Youth’s Engagement in Mental Health Care." Click here to see her abstract and presentation slides.
  • Justine presented an exciting poster titled, "Changes in Anxiety Severity Among Youth Before and During COVID-19: Findings from a Specialty Care Clinic."
  • Lucy Liu joined the team as the new research coordinator for the Gender-Affirming Psychotherapy Study. Welcome Lucy!
November 2022
  • Dr. Price presented on gender-affirming therapy to the University of Hawai’i Psychology Department on Tuesday, November 1st.​
  • Attending the American Public Health Association's Annual Meeting this year? On Tuesday, November 8th from 2:30-4pm, Dr. Price and Marina Rakhilin will be speaking at a roundtable titled, “Health Equity and Anti-Oppressive Public Health Social Work Practice" about lessons learned thus far from the GAPS community advisory boards. Click here to read the abstract.
  • Dr. Price will present at the Boston University School of Medicine Grand Rounds on Thursday, November 10th about how anti-Black racism may undermine the efficacy of psychotherapy. Click here to learn more.
October 2022
  • Dr. Price presented on structural stigma and its implications for youth psychology at the Boston College Psychology Department on October 3rd.
  • Marina Rakhilin, Lisa Collins, and fellow BCSSW students hosted a Queer Scholars Luncheon titled, "Being Queer, Intersectionality, and Academia" on Thursday, October 20th. 
  • The Affirm Lab hosted a virtual panel about Doctoral Programs in Psychology (and related fields) on Thursday, October 20th from 2-3pm. Many dropped in to hear from Affirm Lab alumni including Nathan Hollinsaid, McKenzie Sheridan, Hilary Skov, and Gabi Kaufman. Click here to watch the zoom recording. 
  • On October 26th Dr. Price presented at the University of Toronto's Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development. She discussed findings from spatial meta-analytic studies examining whether racism and sexism are associated with worse psychotherapy efficacy for girls (Price et al., 2021) and Black youth (Price et al., 2022). Click here for more details.
September 2022
  • Eddy Jiang presented at a SIGECS grantee symposium about the recent progress our team has made on the IMPACTS study. Click here to watch a recording and learn about how our think-aloud method helps us collect usability data on the rough draft of this training for school staff.
  • Eddy also presented about his experience working at the Affirm Lab at a special Schiller event to the BC Board of Trustees and Board of Regents.
August 2022
  • ​Attending the American Psychological Association (APA) conference in Minneapolis this August? On Thursday, August 4, Dr. Maggi Price will give an address about findings from her spatial meta-analyses on the impact of structural stigma (e.g., racism, sexism) on youth psychotherapy outcomes (click here for details). To wrap up that day, Dr. Price will present her cutting edge study on racism (click here for article) at the “The Future of Science on Youth: Data Blitz and Reception” (click here for details). On August 5th, she will serve on a panel titled, “The Long Arc of Progress: Translating the Science of Child Mental Health Disparities to Promote Equity." She will finish the day at the American Psychological Foundation's reception where she'll present on the "Gender Affirming Psychotherapy Study (GAPS)" aimed at creating an evidence-informed training program in gender-affirming care for therapists who work with youth. This final talk is from 5-7 pm at the Hyatt Regency Boundary Waters Ballroom A-B (4th floor); it is an open reception - walk-ins are welcome. Click here to learn more and register.
  • Dr. Maggi Price also attended the reception for awardees of the APF John and Polly Sparks Early Career Grant for Psychologists Investigating Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED). Congratulations!
  • We have welcomed three new research assistants: Moumina Khan, Dylan Reyes, and Sarah Reilly. Also joining the team for this Fall is Gabi Kaufman, a prior lab graduate!
June 2022
May 2022
  • ​Congratulations to our beloved Affirm Lab members Erick DuShane, Eddy Jiang, Kara Johansen, and Halina Tittmann for their graduation from Boston College! We celebrated their bright future ahead at our Lab Graduation Party and the 2022 Boston College Commencement! 
  • Affirm members Kara Johansen and Halina Tittmann's honor theses became publicly available! Click here to read Kara's honor thesis on Cleaning During COVID: Navigating Working Arrangements for House Cleaners and Their Employers in Boston and Dallas; Click here to read Halina's honor thesis on Filipino Americans and the Rise of Anti-Asian Hate! 
  • Kara Johansen received the McCarthy prize which is awarded to the best undergraduate thesis in Boston College's Social Sciences, as determined by the dean's reviewers. She also received Scholar of the College, which is awarded to undergraduate students who did substantial, independent research of the highest quality as well as the Karp Award, which awarded to one particularly outstanding senior thesis in Sociology.
  • Erick DuShane was selected as the recipient of the Matthew L. Pisapia Memorial Award. This award is granted to only two students who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership in the field of Children Youth and Families. Congrats to Erick!
  • Dr. Maggi Price was invited by Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to participate in an author podcast for her new study: Meta-analysis: Are Psychotherapies Less Effective for Black Youth in Communities With Higher Levels of Anti-Black Racism? This study was also featured in Elsevier Press Release. Click here to listen to the podcast and Click here to read the press release! 
April 2022
  • Marina Rakhilin and Eddy Jiang presented their independent research at the Boston College Medical Humanities, Health, and Culture Conference 2022: Resilience. Marina spoke about the limitations of focusing solely on specialty care centers for transgender youth (abstract here) and Eddy spoke to the power of Queer Theology for shaping the resiliency of queer Christians (abstract here). Click here to watch the recording of their presentations (starting at 17:05).
  • Dr. Maggi Price and Marina Rakhilin presented at the Mad*Pow Health Experience Design Conference on April 11. They discussed initial data from the Gender-Affirming Psychotherapy study and implications for designing feasible and desirable trainings for mental healthcare providers. Click here to learn more.
  • Dr. Maggi Price published a manuscript with co-authors Rongyu Xin, Olivia M. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Ho Lam Lai, John R. Weisz, titled  A Systematic Narrative Review of Cognitive-behavioral Therapies with Asian American Youth. Click here to see the full article! 
March 2022
  • Dr. Maggi Price published a manuscript alongside co-authors Chantelle Roulston, Sarah McKetta, Kathryn R. Fox, and Jessica L. Schleider, titled Structural Correlates of Mental Health Support Access among Sexual Minority Youth of Color during COVID-19. Click here to read the full text.
  • Under Dr. Maggi Price's mentorship, Marina Rakhilin and Eddy Jiang presented their poster, "Differences in Developmental Timing of Gender Transition Across Religious, Spiritual, and Atheist Transgender People" (abstract linked here) at the 2022 biennial meeting of Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA)! 
  • Eddy Jiang received $1,000 travel grant from Boston College's Winston Center For Leadership and Ethics (housed in the Business School). It was his first ever grant application and sponsored his travel to the SRA meeting!
  • Affirm Lab members had their first lab social in 2022 with our giant Teddy bear and our fluffy friend Boots!
February 2022 
  • We welcomed Lisa Collins as a new member of the lab!
  • Affirm Lab was granted an office space in BC’s new Integrated Science and Society building at 245 Beacon Street! All are welcome to visit us at room 406!
  • ​Senator Markey (D) of Massachusetts came to visit us in the office! He learned about our research with transgender youth and said, "Keep up the good work!" We responded, "You too!"
January 2022
  • BC Heights, a student-run newspaper at Boston College, interviewed Dr. Price and featured our ongoing studies in their news article. In this article, Dr. Price explained the similarities and differences between the GAPS and IMPACTS studies, and how students at BC can benefit from the training interventions we are developing.
  • ​Boston College Chronicle featured Dr. Price’s studies on how racism and sexism are becoming obstacles to psychotherapy. In conclusion, she emphasized that “enhanced training in culturally responsive care, including how to address racism, sexism, and other stigma in therapy, is essential, and will help clinicians better serve their clients” (click here for the entire article).
December 2021
  • Affirm Lab welcomed 3 new Research Assistants Marissa Allen, Yang Fan, and Kara Johansen!
  • Dr. Maggi Price's research on improving therapy for transgender youth was featured in an article by CNN on December 7, 2021. When asked about the effectiveness of using chatbot in training counselors, she said, "There's such a mental-health crisis right now and there's such a dearth of resources in gender-affirming care, LGBTQ-affirming care, specifically, I think overall it sounds really promising." (Check the full article here)!
​November 2021
  • Dr. Price and Nathan Hollinsaid presented a symposium (“Does stigma moderate the efficacy of mental health interventions among marginalized groups?”) at the 2021 ABCT Convention in New Orleans. Nathan also presented three first-authored posters: “Structural Transphobia and the Availability of Gender-Affirming Mental Health Providers,” “State-Level Anti-Black Cultural Racism and Black Youth’s Mental Health,” and “Mental Health Effects of COVID-19 on Transgender and Gender Diverse People.”​
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October 2021
  • ​BCSSW News featured Eddy Jiang and Halina Tittmann as examples of extraordinary undergraduate students currently working with social work professors to “confront the ‘messy reality’ of the real world.”
September 2021
  • Thank you BC Undergraduate Research Fellowship for funding our undergraduate research assistants, Eddy Jiang and Halina Tittmann, throughout this academic year!
  • Dr. Maggi Price's research on improving therapy for transgender youth was featured in an article by Boston College School of Social Work News on September 21, 2021. When asked about the significance of this work, she said, "Kids shouldn’t have to go to clinics and not know whether their providers have the ability to help them out. As clients continue to come out to their therapists as transgender, we’re going to see an increase in demand for providers who are trained to meet their needs.”
August 2021
  • Congratulations to Dr. Maggi Price for receiving a prestigious NIMH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, which funds four years of work on the GAPS project.
  • Affirm Lab welcomes our new Graduate Assistant Erick DuShane!
July 2021
June 2021
  • Nathan Hollinsaid has been invited to present findings from two recent projects at the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Future Directions Forum from June 17-19. 
  • We recently welcomed three new members to the lab: Halina Tittmann, Gabi Ortiz, and Nicole DeSantis! Halina will be working as an undergraduate research assistant, Gabi is Dr. Price's Ph.D. student, and Nicole will be our new graduate assistant after Colleen Johnston graduated from the lab. We are so excited for them to join us!
May 2021
  • Congrats to our Affirm Lab undergraduate research assistant Eddy Jiang who has been accepted to the Boston College Master of Arts (M.A) in Mental Health Counseling!
  • ​Thanks for BC’s Undergraduate Research Fund, we were able to secure the summer salary for Eddy Jiang and another incoming research assistant Halina Tittmann!
April 2021
  • Affirm Lab PI Dr. Maggi Price presented at the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women's Health on April 14th at 1:45-2:45pm. She will speak to why psychotherapies are less effective for girls living in communities with high sexism. Fast forward to 3:50:00 to watch her 15-minute presentation at this link. See here for the preprint of Dr. Price's paper, "Cultural Sexism Moderates Efficacy of Psychotherapy: Results from a Spatial Meta-Analysis. 
  • Dr. Maggi Price received the BC Research Incentive Grant for the Summer of 2021 to fund a study focused on developing a provider training in gender-affirming mental health therapy, meaning therapy that affirms transgender and gender diverse youth's (i.e., young people whose gender differs from the societally-defined norms of their birth-assigned sex) gender identities and expressions, empowering ​them to combat and cope with gender-related stress or discrimination.
March 2021
February 2021
  • Dr. Maggi Price was featured in the Boston College Chronicle. When asked to give an example of how this lab could make a difference in improving therapy for stigmatized youth, she said, “We’re preparing to launch a project focused on developing a clinical training in gender-affirming mental health therapy, meaning therapy that affirms transgender and gender-diverse youth’s gender identities and expressions, empowers them to combat and cope with gender-related stress and discrimination, and acknowledges that they deserve to live in a society without these pressures. We are excited to someday offer this training to BC students who are training in or providing clinical services (therapy, nursing, etc.) so that as graduates they will be equipped to provide culturally responsive and supportive care to a wide variety of clients, including transgender folks."
  • Affirm Lab welcomes new lab members Marina Rakhilin and Eddy Jiang!
​August 2020
  • The Affirm Lab's very own Dr. Maggi Price was recently featured in an article published by BCSSW News, and in another introducing new faculty!
  • Affirm Lab PI Dr. Maggi Price and lab members Emma Bokhour, Gabrielle Kaufman, McKenzie Sheridan, and Nathan Hollinsaid presented findings from their paper "The Experiences of Gender Minority Youth and Their Caregivers in Mental Health Treatment: A Qualitative Analysis" at the 2020 APA Convention. Their presentation was part of a symposium on "LGBTQ-Affirming Therapy." Watch the video to the right!
  • In other exciting APA convention news, Nathan Hollinsaid, and coauthors Emma Bokhour, Gabrielle Kaufman, Dr. Christy Olezeski, and Dr. Maggi Price, presented their poster"A Qualitative Analysis of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Gender Minority Adolescents" at the Division 17 poster session. 
  • Affirm lab graduate Hilary Skov started her doctoral training in School Psychology at Tulane University in August 2020. She will be working with Dr. Sarah Gray in the Child and Family Lab on research focusing on the psychosocial and physiological consequences of exposure to early life stress and trauma, and how parent-child interactions can promote resilience to these stressors. Like the Affirm Lab, the Child and Family Lab also integrates narrative measurement to understand both the experience of each child and how parents and caregivers perceive their child’s experience. 
  • Affirm lab graduate McKenzie Sheridan has begun work on her Clinical Psychology PsyD at William James College. She is entering as an advanced standing student in the children and families of adversity and resilience concentration and will be completing 2nd year coursework. McKenzie’s internship for this year will be at Trauma and Family Integration, LLC based in Lowell, MA providing in-home therapy to families and individual tele-psychotherapy to adults in their outpatient clinic. McKenzie has begun work on her Doctoral Project which will be  focused on the trauma experiences of sexual and gender minorities of color. Additionally, McKenzie has joined the Rainbow Alliance and will serve as a graduate assistant to the Workforce Development office at William James.
  • August 30th - McKenzie Sheridan’s M.A. degree in Mental Health Counseling is officially conferred by Boston College. ​​
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Pictures from a celebration of lab graduates McKenzie and Gabi after they received their M.A.s from Boston College's Lynch School of Education
 July 2020
  • Affirm Lab member Nathan Hollinsaid served as a panelist for “LGBTQIA+ Community Voices: Reflections on Healthcare Experiences,” an event hosted by the Harvard Medical School SGM Health Initiative. Watch Nathan’s appearance here. ​
June 2020
  • Dr. Maggi Price served as a panelist for "Struggling to be Proud and Thriving: Supporting the Well-being and Mental Health of LGBTQ+ College Students," a JED foundation webinar. You can watch the webinar here. ​
May 2020
  • Congrats to Nathan Hollinsaid, along with co-authors Emma Bokhour, Gabrielle Kaufman, Dr. Christy Olezeski, and Dr. Maggi Price (senior author), whose poster “A Qualitative Analysis of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Gender Minority Adolescents” has been accepted for (virtual) presentation at the 2020 APA Convention. The poster received a $100 award from the APA Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) Section on LGBT Issues.
July 2019
  • Nathan Hollinsaid and Dr. Maggi Price (faculty mentor) were recipients of the Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant from Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. The grant, which included a $1,500 faculty stipend for outstanding mentorship, was used to support Nathan's honors thesis.