Andrea L. DaViera, PhD

Andrea DaViera (she/her) is a community psychologist, community organizer, and educator who received her PhD from the University of Illinois Chicago in 2024. She has two broad and intersecting areas of research inquiry.  First, Andrea seeks to use research to demonstrate the links between structural racism and interpersonal violence, including how systemic oppression creates the conditions for violence to be prevalent. Second, her research focuses on how to design and carry-out systems-level anti-racist social change, with a focus on anti-racist youth organizing. Andrea applies a wide range of research methods to achieve these aims, including quantitative, qualitative, and community-engaged, all of which are informed by a critical anti-racist perspective. She leans on readings from critical race theory, anti/decolonial theory, Black feminism, to guide her scholarship and activism. In addition, Andrea has more than seven cumulative years of experience as a community organizer where she worked with a diversity of student and community organizations in Chicago. She has experience as a college-level instructor and has also received accolades for her participatory and student-focused teaching. For fun, Andrea paints, cooks, and spends time with her fiancé and family.