Andrea DaViera, PhD

Andrea DaViera, PhD, is an incoming tenure track assistant professor of community psychology at Wichita State University beginning in fall 2026. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Violence Prevention Institute and Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health, funded through both a Dissemination and Implementation Science T32 Training program (T32TR004770) and a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) training grant (T76MC04927). In 2024, she completed her doctoral training in community and applied developmental psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago. Most of DaViera’s research is focused on disparities in community and police violence, with emphasis on the structural, political, and fiscal determinants of violence, and using community-based solutions to advance safety. In addition, DaViera is broadening the scope of her research to include structural, political, and fiscal determinants of other pervasive health disparities, including disparities in life expectancy, health span, and access to health services. DaViera understands that health equity is more than just the absence of physical or mental illness but something that requires the presence of conditions and policies that promote individual wellbeing and community thriving. This means that achieving health equity involves removing structural barriers that inhibit wellness, especially for communities who have been historically and systemically disenfranchised by social and political institutions. Through this framework, DaViera seeks to understand and address social and fiscal policies that center community needs as a target for health equity, promoting safety and health through fiscal investment into public services such as high-quality education, access to health care, affordable and safe housing, and workforce development programs.