Sofina Shekhar

Sofina is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. This semester, she is working as a graduate research assistant at New Directions Early Head Start (NDEHS) and with her advisor, Dr. Roderick Carey. At NDEHS, Sofina is responsible for analyzing Family Map data and assisting in the creation of reports. In her work with Dr. Carey Sofina is working on developing a protocol for focus groups aimed at exploring youth insights on creating practices, lessons, and curriculum materials that enhance teachers’ ability to foster environments that bolster mattering perceived by students of color. She is providing writing support on several projects, including an exploration of recent educational research on Black boys, focusing on the modes, measures, and meanings behind the shift from focusing on school achievement to self-actualization. She also contributed to a literature review examining the conflation of mattering and belonging constructs in K-12 education research.

Sofina earned her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in December 2021. During her gap year and a half, she worked as a project coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh on a community-based research initiative called Literacy Eats, implemented in Northeast Philadelphia. This initiative was co-developed with community organizations and families and aimed to empower parents to foster their preschoolers’ language and literacy skills through cooking and meal-time routines. Sofina is particularly passionate about conducting community-based research with Black and Latin@ adolescents. Her research interests focus on promoting racial equity in education through culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, and exploring how these approaches impact youths’ critical consciousness, intersectional identity, and racial socialization development.

Research Projects

• Literacy Eats, Food for Thought lab, University of Pittsburgh
• NOAH study, Behavioral medicine and science group, University of Pittsburgh
• Playful learning study, Food for thought lab, University of Pittsburgh
• Generator Z, Cambiar Collective, University of Pittsburgh
• Home and Coronavirus, Frieze lab, University of Pittsburgh

Professional Experiences

• Project Coordinator, Literacy Eats, Food for Thought lab, University of Pittsburgh
• Research Associate, NOAH study, Behavioral Medicine and Science group, University of Pittsburgh

Honors and Awards

• Magna Cum Laude, University of Pittsburgh
• Dean’s List, University of Pittsburgh

Past Education

• B.S. in Psychology, University of Pittsburgh