Betty Lai

Dr. Betty Lai is Professor of Counseling Psychology in the Counseling, Developmental & Educational Psychology department at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She directs the Lai Lab, which investigates how children and families respond to disasters and other traumatic stressors, with an emphasis on mental and physical health outcomes and school functioning.

Education

• Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Miami
• M.S.T. in Education, Pace University
• B.A., Columbia University

Research Interests

Dr. Lai’s theory-guided research centers on three primary themes:

• Understanding how community resources and individual factors help youth prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.
• Examining the pathways linking disaster exposure to psychological distress (PTSD, depression, anxiety), health behaviors (physical activity, diet), and biological health outcomes (blood pressure, cardiovascular risk).
• Translating findings into policy and practice through schools, evidence-based interventions, and advanced statistical modeling.

Recent Research Trends

Across her 2023-2025 publications, Dr. Lai has focused on integrating large public datasets to model post-disaster trajectories, evaluating innovative science-communication strategies, and co-designing community-school partnerships that bolster youth well-being after environmental jolts such as hurricanes and COVID-19.

Awards & Honors

• Distinguished Research Award in Counseling, AERA Division E (2022)
• Dorothy Booz Black Award for Outstanding Contributions in Health Psychology, APA Div. 17 (2022)
• Diane J. Willis Early Career Award, APF/Div. 37 (2018)
• APA Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Benefit Children, Youth, and Families (2017)
• Excellence in Instruction Award, Georgia State University School of Public Health (2017)
• National Scholar, Academy on Violence and Abuse (2014)
• Mary Fran Myers Scholarship for Disaster Research and Practice (2014)

Grants, Training & Leadership

Dr. Lai’s work has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She currently leads a $50,000 Grodman Family Foundation project on “Climate Impacts on Youth,” a $40,000 Boston College Research Across Departments grant evaluating science-communication practices, and an $11,500 Schiller Institute exploratory collaboration grant. She is also Principal Investigator on an NIMH-funded study examining child PTSD trajectories after natural disasters. Beyond grants, she mentors the next generation of scholars through her lab, authored the best-selling Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars (Princeton University Press, 2023), and is preparing the forthcoming The Public Scholar (Princeton University Press).

Labs & Teams

Betty Lai directs the Lai Lab, an interdisciplinary research group that applies advanced statistical and psychometric techniques to large-scale survey and biomarker data. The lab collaborates with the International Consortium to Predict PTSD and partners with school districts, community organizations, and international agencies to translate research into scalable interventions for children and families affected by trauma.