PROFILE

Kathryn Boucher, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Psychology and the associate director of the Strain Honors College at the University of Indianapolis. She is also a principal investigator at the College Transition Collaborative. Dr. Boucher explores stereotypes: how they can hurt us, how we respond to them, and how they can be changed or their effects lessened. In this research, she examines how stereotype and social identity threat can negatively impact students from underserved, underrepresented, and/or negatively stereotyped groups. She pinpoints cues in the classroom that inspire threat and tests strategies that help curb threat’s influence and lead to more equitable outcomes for students. In her intervention work with the College Transition Collaborative, she works to scale and disseminate insights from this research with other educators and institutions. These scholarly efforts have been supported by the Raikes Foundation and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Dr. Boucher earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of Kentucky and her Ph.D. in social psychology from Indiana University. As a faculty member at the University of Indianapolis, she teaches courses in statistics, research methods, and social psychology and incorporates many of the practices noted in this article in her teaching and mentoring. Her university and professional service focuses upon sharing her expertise to better support students as they make the transition to college and through to graduation.