Yzette Lanier

Yzette Lanier, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at New York University's Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Her research focuses on health promotion and disease prevention in communities of color, particularly among African American adolescents, with an emphasis on preventing HIV/STIs and unintended pregnancy. She employs health equity and strengths-based frameworks to examine how individual, social, and cultural factors shape adolescent sexual decision-making, especially within romantic relationships.

Her educational background includes a PhD and MS in Developmental Psychology from Howard University, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Health Equity Research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in HIV prevention for communities of color.

Lanier’s research spans adolescent sexual health, family functioning during pregnancy, depression care disparities, and couple-based HIV prevention. Her recent publications highlight qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to understanding relationship dynamics, community engagement, and intervention development. She has secured significant funding, including a $1.2 million CDC award, and her work often involves human-centered design and community-based participatory research.

She is an active contributor to public discourse, with media appearances in outlets like Newsweek. Her scholarly contributions are centered on reducing health disparities through culturally tailored, developmentally appropriate interventions.

• American Psychological Association
• American Public Health Association
• Association of Black Psychologists
• Society for Research on Adolescence

Lanier has been recognized with honors including a Visiting Scholar position at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. She is actively involved in mentoring and training, and she accepts PhD students, indicating her commitment to developing the next generation of public health researchers.

Her current active project is the Development and Pilot-testing of a Couple-focused HIV Behavioral Intervention, reflecting her focus on dyadic approaches to sexual health promotion.