Cecelia Valrie has received the Award for Interdisciplinary Collaboration from the National Institute of Health’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative. The initiative presented Dr. Valrie with the award in recognition of her project, “Predicting Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease Acute Pain Using Mathematical Models Based on mHealth Data.”
Dr. Valrie is an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has two decades of experience studying persistent pain, sleep, and heath inequities in people living with sickle cell disease and Black youth. Her research spans the fields of psychology, developmental science, health care, mathematics, and engineering. In addition to her faculty appointment, Dr. Valrie serves as chair of the Culture, Race, and Health Transdisciplinary Core of the university’s Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation.
“I enjoy and appreciate being able to work with great colleagues and members of the sickle cell community who bring new perspectives to my work every day,” Dr. Valrie said. “These collaborations are central to making sure my work has an impact.”
Dr. Valrie is a summa cum laude graduate of East Carolina University where she double-majored in psychology and mathematics. She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.