Health Psychology

Tenured

Faculty

Education

• Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• M.A. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• B.A. in Psychology and Mathematics, East Carolina University

Research Interests

Dr. Cecelia Valrie uses health and developmental psychology techniques and theories to study persistent pain, sleep, and health inequities in people living with sickle cell disease and youth and young adults, with a focus on Black youth. She is also focused on testing and improving implementation and dissemination of effective interventions to improve health outcomes and promote health equity in these populations. Dr. Valrie uses a mix of methodologies, including survey, interviews, and mhealth technology that allows for time-sensitive assessments in the environments people live in.   

Select Publications

• Shipman-Lacewell, J., Hagiwara, N., Green, T., Jones, H., Belgrave, F., & Valrie, C. (in press). Sleep and fatigue as mediators of racial discrimination and internalizing symptoms in Black adolescent-caregiver dyads. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.
• Pascale, A., Sisler., I., Smith, W., & Valrie, C. (2023). Intraindividual pain variability metrics for youth with sickle cell disease: Relations to health outcomes. Pediatric Blood and Cancer, 70(4): e30194.
• Valrie, C. R., Alston, K., Morgan, K., Kilpatrick, R., Sisler, I., & Fuh, B. (2021) Pediatric Sickle Cell Pain-Sleep Relationships: The Roles of Positive and Negative Affect. Health Psychology, 40(11): 793-802.
• Valrie, C.R., Thurston, I., & Santos, M. (2020). Introduction to the Special Issue: Addressing Health Disparities in Pediatric Psychology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 45(8): 833-838.
• Valrie, C. R., Alston, K., Fuh, B., Redding-Lallinger, R. & Sisler, I. (2020). Sleep moderating the relationship between pain and health care use in youth with sickle cell disease. Clinical Journal of Pain, 36(2): 117-123.

Links

• VCU Center for Cultural Experiences in Prevention
• VCU iCubed Culture, Race and Health Transdisciplinary Core
• VCU Center on Health Disparities
  

Courses

• Psyc 412: Health Psychology

Awards

• NIH HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-Term) Initiative Award for Interdisciplinary Collaboration, 2024
• Outstanding Community Engagement Award 2023, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
  

Links

• iCubed scholar Cecelia Valrie spearheads pediatric sickle cell research project that was awarded a $420K NIH grant (10/19/2022)