Irene J. K. Park PhD, MA, BA

Dr. Irene Park is currently an Assistant Research Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine—South Bend. Broadly, Dr. Park’s research focuses on sources of risk and resilience in the mental health of immigrant and racial/ethnic minority populations. Using an ecological approach, Dr. Park seeks to understand the sociocultural contexts in which ethnic minority youths reside, particularly the contexts of culture and family, as they relate to youths’ mental health. Currently, Dr. Park is investigating the role of racial/ethnic discrimination as one factor contributing to mental health disparities among Latino adolescents, with a focus on mediating mechanisms (e.g., anger regulation) and risk and protective factors (e.g., ethnic identity) in the discrimination—mental health link; this research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Park received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellowship through the Family Research Consortium at the University of California, Davis, focusing on family processes and child/adolescent mental health in diverse contexts. Dr. Park was on the faculty in the Psychology Department at the University of Notre Dame for 10 years before joining the faculty at the Indiana University School of Medicine in 2013.