Shandra M. Jones is a PhD student concentrating in Human Development, Learning & Teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on how adolescent and young adult cultural and psychological assets support post-secondary student success in the face of structural, systemic and contextual barriers. As such, her work considers the intersection of student development, college/university culture, organizational change management, and technology. Current projects include evaluations of ethnic-racial identity and coping strategies as protective factors against discrimination for ethnic-racial minority adolescents; bridging educational and developmental psychology through the extension of postsecondary success models to include ethnic-racial identity; and cultural and psychometric implications for psychosocial research instrument development. Shandra brings over 10 years of experience in public, nonprofit, and private sectors along with a consistent record of community engagement. In higher education, Shandra has led admissions and recruiting strategy, scholarships/financial aid, student services, diversity and inclusion efforts for domestic and global student populations, and served as group facilitator and educator around topics of student success, digital strategies and DEI. Born and raised in Prichard, Alabama, Shandra is a first-generation student -- or as she calls herself, “first-generation everything” -- who graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Political Science and from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Masters of Business Administration. She currently serves as Research Assistant in Dr. Adriana Umaña-Taylor’s Adolescent Ethnic-Racial Identity Development (AERID) Laboratory; Resident Tutor, advising Harvard undergraduates through residential and student life; and Co-President of Du Bois Graduate Society of GSAS, where she launched the inaugural graduate students of color conference.