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Alumna spotlight: Bria Gresham
Bria Gresham, PhD ’25, likes to say she was “raised in a hospital.” Originally from Illinois, Gresham was one of five children raised by a single mother. Her second-oldest brother had a complex medical condition that required 19 surgeries and repeated hospitalizations, and he had a disability that required around-the-clock care. He passed away just shy of his 18th birthday.
During these difficult years, Gresham was assigned a guardian ad litem for a short period. Gresham’s experience with this court-appointed advocate inspired her early interest in child advocacy law. She also felt drawn to teaching. She knew she wanted to attend college, but because she was the first in her family to do so, her path to a degree and to a career helping children wasn’t immediately clear.
Gresham’s journey took her from a small liberal arts college to an online program to Gadsden State Community College in Alabama, where she earned an associate’s degree in paralegal studies before transferring to the University of Alabama and declaring a criminal justice major. While working as a paralegal throughout her undergraduate studies, she began to suspect that law might not be the right fit and began to explore other majors, including psychology.
“The first class I took outside of general psychology was developmental psych, and I absolutely fell in love,” she says. “So many of the things I had been thinking and feeling about growth, development, and family started aligning and making sense.”
As a junior, Gresham joined the psychology honors program and a research lab focused on “contextual violence—community violence, discriminatory experiences and adversity. I felt that touched my core in a way,” she says. She began applying to PhD programs in her senior year and chose to come to ICD.
Bria Gresham
“The community-based mentorship model really drew me to ICD, the ability to integrate my interests across labs and areas,” Gresham explains. Her primary advisor was Associate Professor Canan Karatekin, and Karatekin referred her to Professor Megan Gunnar when she decided to propose a project on the effects of community violence on cortisol levels to the National Science Foundation. Gresham also completed a three-year training program in population studies through the Minnesota Population Center, mentored by School of Public Health Professor Theresa Osypuk, whose research examines neighborhood effects on health. Each of her faculty advisors contributed a different lens on Gresham’s research.
As a PhD student, Gresham shared her experience of navigating the “hidden curriculum” of higher education as a mentor to undergraduate students. She took on leadership roles in the NextGen Psychology Scholars program and in the student caucus of the Association for Psychological Science. While she was finishing up her dissertation and considering next steps, Gunnar shared with her that St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an academic medical center focused on childhood catastrophic diseases, was seeking researchers. Gresham applied and was offered a position as faculty instructor in the Department of Psychology and Biobehavioral Sciences.
The research program that Gresham now leads at St. Jude reflects the organization’s focus on childhood cancer. “There is evidence that residing in a lower socioeconomic neighborhood is associated with disparities in childhood cancer outcomes,” she explains. She notes that these disparities are not just found in survival rates. They are also found in the types of treatment that patients have access to. And they are found in the prevalence of comorbidities as well as in the effects of treatment, including anxiety and depression.
“The care that St. Jude provides is instrumental in increasing survival rates, but we are also working to understand the effects of treatment and its long-term outcomes. I am applying my background working on the contextual effects on health to childhood cancer. This truly felt like everything fell into place,” Gresham says. “I am the sibling of a severely ill and disabled person who developed an interest in child advocacy. Now I go to work and walk through the hospital, and everyone is unified under this mission of improving the lives of children. It feels like a beautiful way to use my background, degree, and expertise.”