Raven S. Wright-Smith, PhD, RN: Dr. Wright-Smith is a nurse scientist and postdoctoral scholar in the Ruth L. Kirchstein T32 Research Fellowship in Complementary and Integrative Healthcare at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has extensive experience as a charge nurse in Emergency Medicine, specialized training as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, and a background in teaching undergraduate nursing students. Her doctoral research focused on biopsychosocial pathways of gendered stress, trauma, biological aging, and cardiometabolic disease, deepening her understanding of the multifaceted factors that influence mental health treatment and outcomes. Dr. Wright-Smith’s work emphasizes providing culturally relevant characteristics and processes for future tailored interventions and research.
Dr. Wright-Smith is involved in the HARMONY study, a culturally relevant, randomized-controlled stress management intervention to reduce cardiometabolic risk in African American women. She is actively preparing grants and is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Nurse Association and the Southern Nurse Research Society. Her publications cover topics such as workplace meditation interventions, the use of food to cope with culturally relevant stressful life events, and stress in relation to biological aging.
