Dr. April Thames is Director of the Social Neuroscience and Health Psychology Laboratory, Professor of Psychiatry and Chief Psychologist of the Adult Psychology Division within the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. For the past 20 years, her research program has been devoted to understanding cultural and social influences on health and behavior. She was the first to demonstrate the effects of how societal stereotypes and discrimination influence performance on neuropsychological testing. More recently, her workin the impact of how racial discrimination relates to black-white differences in gene expression has garnered attention across several media outlets including NBC California Live, NPR news, and the Nation’s Health. She is the first to propose and illustrate the “dissociative interference” hypothesis of trauma as it relates to memory complaints among clinic patients who demonstrate normal performance on neuropsychological testing. Dr. Thames is passionate about promoting equitable healthcare and health care practices in partnership with community stakeholders.
