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Gray Bowers

Gray is a doctoral student in the Health Psychology and Clinical Science program at the Graduate Center, CUNY focusing their research on the interaction between chronic structural stress, trauma, and substance use in LGBTQ+ communities. Their previous research has examined the effects of trauma, stress, and resilience-based coping in underserved and diverse populations both locally and globally. Gray’s current research focuses on implementation efforts to increase the access to, and engagement with evidence-based interventions (EBIs) that (a) are culturally and contextually responsive to structural, systemic, and chronic stressors, and (b) amplify individual- and community-level strengths to mitigate adverse mental health outcomes. Working under the mentorship of Dr. Teresa Lopez-Castro, Gray’s community-based research goals include taking an intersectional interdisciplinary approach to understanding how identity, discrimination, and traumatic stress relate to mental illness development, and hazardous substance use in multiply marginalized QTBIPOC Communities. Through their research, Gray hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the impacts of structural stress on well-being and improve access to, and implementation of, individualized care in resource constrained settings.