Leah M. Lessard

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut. I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

My research centers on how adolescents' peer experiences affect their academic and health-related wellbeing during the middle and high school years. I focus in particular on relational (e.g., cross-group friendships) and contextual (e.g., school diversity) mechanisms of reducing marginalization of adolescents with stigmatized identities and attributes (e.g., based on sexual orientation, body weight, race/ethnicity) to support healthy and academically successful outcomes.