Kierra is a PhD student in the Psychoimmunometabolix and Interaction with the Environment (PIXIE)-Lab and the Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology (SPI)-Lab in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London. She is also a US-UK Fulbright Commission Award Recipient.

She graduated with an MSc in Health Psychology from University College London in 2022 shortly after completing her undergraduate degrees (BSc in Psychology and BA in German) at the University of Texas at Austin.

Kierra has a passion for trauma and depression research and aims to investigate the links between psychiatric disorders and physical disease. She hopes to use her research to showcase the detrimental impact sexual and physical violence can have on an individual’s mental and physical health. In turn, she seeks to advocate for improved health policy measures for survivors of interpersonal violence.