Yolanda Michelle Adwoa is a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology and a researcher in the Odoms-Young Nutrition Liberation Food Sovereignty and Justice Lab. Her specialization is in health psychology, food psychology, and neuropsychology, focusing on the impact of dietary behaviors and health behaviors on the psychological well-being and overall health outcomes particularly within women, maternal, child, and adolescents in BIPOC communities.

Yolanda’s dissertation, Nourishing Black Motherhood, is in progress and involves a quantitative examination of how food attitudes, behaviors, and social-ecologica  factors influence the BMI levels and psychological well-being among Black mothers and their children. Her research interests include the impact of dietary behaviors on mental health, health disparities related to food environments, and the influence of socio-economic and cultural contexts on wellness in underserved populations, including those with neurodevelopmental disabilities. In her role at the Odoms-Young Lab, she is involved in two research projects: Nutrition & Disability Scoping Review and Parental Perceptions on Mealtime Behaviors in African American Children.