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Ashaunta Anderson

Institutional Affiliation: 
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, UC Riverside
Professional Bio: 

Ashaunta Anderson is a pediatrician who completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University with a major in human biology and concentration in the genetics and structure of the human organism. Dr. Anderson received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. During her medical training, she spent one year as a participant in the National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Training Program studying biomarkers of sickle cell disease. As a Schweitzer fellow, she participated in clinical and community health measures to promote child health in Lambaréné, Gabon. She then completed the Baylor College of Medicine pediatrics residency. Dr. Anderson has completed the Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy where she received a Master of Public Health with a concentration in family and community health. She also participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA where she received a Master of Science in Health Services. Presently, Dr. Anderson is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Center for Healthy Communities at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine and Health Policy Researcher at RAND Corporation in Santa Monica.

Area of Expertise: 

Racial socialization is the process by which children learn to navigate race issues. My research focuses on early racial socialization as a strategy to address the interrelated achievement gap and health disparities. During my fellowship, I was Principal Investigator of a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program and the Academic Pediatric Association/Aetna Young Investigator Award. I supervised the execution of focus groups with 114 African American, Latino, and Korean parents of young children (ages 0-4 years) who confirmed the salience of racial socialization for school readiness and their willingness to participate in a parenting intervention targeting these areas. Since last year’s publication of my peer-reviewed journal article describing the focus group results, I have presented study findings on 8 occasions, including community, university, regional, national, and radio broadcast audiences. I have co-authored a related commentary in the American Academy of Pediatrics news magazine and secured funding to support a systematic review of racial socialization and health and a community-partnered approach to develop a racial socialization intervention. I am planning to develop and pilot test an early childhood racial socialization intervention that will form the basis for a career development award via the NIH K mechanism.

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