Meet Tanesha R. Johnson, Ph.D
Education
Tanesha graduated from Hampton University in 2016 with the highest honors. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with an emphasis in family and marriage. She was also a Freddye T. Davy Honors College graduate. Following her time at Hampton University, Tanesha went on to the University of Pittsburgh to complete a 1-year post-baccalaureate fellowship. While a part of the Hot Metal Bridge Fellowship program, Tanesha worked under Dr. Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal research on socio-emotional skill differences between Black and White children with similar socioeconomic status. Currently, Tanesha graduated from the Clinical Psychology Program at Saint Louis University, where she worked under the tutelage of Dr. Kira H. Banks. She earned her Master of Science degree in clinical psychology at Saint Louis University in July 2020. Tanesha earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in May 2023. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the University of Florida’s Health Sciences Center. Following her internship, she began her post-doctoral fellowship at University of Kentucky, focused on Pediatric Psychology starting in 2023. She has focused her services primarily on kids and teens with Hematology and Oncology diseases. Her long-term goals are to continue to provide evidence-based, culturally sensitive care to families and their children in the future.
Research
Her post-baccalaureate research focused on comparing theFor her Master’s thesis, she shifted her focus to examine the heterogeneity of Black Americans’ experiences. She found that socioeconomic status moderated the relationship between daily and lifetime discrimination and the psychological well-being subscales. For her dissertation, she continued to investigate how socioeconomic status might vary in middle to high-socioeconomic-status populations, specifically how the relationship between discrimination and both positive and negative mental health outcomes might look differently for Black adults from higher income backgrounds. To expand her dissertation, she won the first Robert Wheeler Endowed Assistantship, which allowed her to include positive psychological well-being as well. Her dissertation found that socioeconomic status worsened negative outcomes of depression and stress in relation to racial discrimination, while at the same time, it found that SES contributed to positive outcomes of autonomy and personal growth.
Currently at the University of Kentucky, Tanesha has been focused more on research investigating the experiences of children and teens who are interfacing with the healthcare system. She also has a focus on medical trauma in pediatric populations. She has worked on a mixed method study researching the mental health burdens of having cystic fibrosis. role of socioeconomic status (SES) in moderating the relationship between children’s race (White vs. Black) and their mental health outcomes. The results of her study suggested that across socioeconomic status levels, White children had better mental health outcomes when compared to their Black counterparts of similar SES.
Clinical Work
Clinically, Tanesha is most interested in working with children, teens, and their families – in various capacities. While at Saint Louis University, Tanesha had the opportunity to work in various settings with children and teens. She worked at a public charter school providing an evidence-based behavioral inventions for children and she’s trained at St. Louis Children’s Hospital focused on outpatient chronic pain for children and teens. he has also worked with an interdisciplinary team conducting evidence-based, COVID-19 modified assessments of autism spectrum disorder. Addiitionally, she worked at a private private in the STL suburbs providing psychoeducational assessments for ASD, ADHD, and cognitive abilities. During her internship, she worked as a part of the psychology team in the children’s hospital division of UF Health, specifically in the hematology/oncology service. In this role, she provided inpatient consultation services and assessed the needs of patients who were admitted for various services, including chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, and sickle cell pain crises. Additionally, during her internship training, she gained a broad scope of experience in providing therapy services, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Trauma Clinic, and Adolescent Mental Health.
Currently, she is working at the University of Kentucky as a new faculty member, where she is working primarily in hematology/oncology services. During her post-doctoral fellowship, Tanesha had the opportunity work doing inpatient consultation services for various services, including Ortho, Nephrology, GI, Hematology/Oncology. She also has a small outpatient service, where she provides evidence based therapy for children and teens with chronic health conditions for anxiety, depression, etc.
Leadership & Advocacy
Dr. Tanesha Johnson prides herself on continuing to be an advocate for those who have been marginalized. During graduate school, Dr. Tanesha focused on her efforts on developing leadership skills. She navigated supervisory and collaborative roles with students, faculty, and clients. She served as Assistant Director of the SLU Psychological Services Center, Student Representative to Faculty, and an active member of the Steering committee of SLU’s Social Justice Group. Dr. Tanesha also served as a co-founder and co-organizer for the #BlackinMentalHealth social media movement.
Since transitioning to a post-doctoral fellowship, Tanesha has been active in advocating for patients within the health care system. Dr. Tanesha and Dr. Tess Thomas, on the behalf of UK’s Psychology Division, were accepted into the inaugural R.A.C.E to TRAIN program sponsored by Div 54 focused on addressing the importance of the supervisory roles in addressing and targeting racism and societal norms as Pediatric Psychologists.
