Dr. Shaina Kumar is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the College of William & Mary. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and completed her postdoctoral training at the Boston University School of Medicine and National Center for PTSD.

Shaina directs the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) Lab at William & Mary. Her primary objective as a researcher is to better understand how people flourish amidst hardship. Shaina’s work has been published in respected outlets, including the Journal of Happiness Studies, Journal of Traumatic Stress, and Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, and funded by agencies such as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment. Over the past several years, she has also won a number of awards, such as the Deborah L. Rhatigan Early Career Award for Excellence in Violence Research from the ABCT Child Maltreatment and Interpersonal Violence SIG and the Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Top Dissertation Award (Honorable Mention) from the International Positive Psychology Association.

At William & Mary, she teaches an undergraduate-level positive psychology course she developed to improve student wellbeing as well as graduate-level statistics for the psychological sciences (which she hopes improves student wellbeing too… just in a different way). She also mentors undergraduate and graduate students and considers mentorship the most meaningful part of her career.

As a Maryland native surrounded by nature, blue waters, and excellent seafood, she came to enjoy long naps and exploring new cuisines. After accepting that her dream of becoming a professional cozy gamer was unlikely, she channeled that energy into psychology. (However, she has still logged hundreds of hours on Animal Crossing and has recently gotten into Hello Kitty Island Adventure.)