Aura Mishra, an assistant professor of psychology at NC State, was among dozens of faculty researchers from around the world to be recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (APS). 

The Rising Star designation is presented to faculty researchers in the earliest stages of their post-Ph.D. career whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions. They are selected by a committee that considers criteria such as significant publications or recognitions as well as significant discoveries, methodological innovations or theoretical or empirical contributions that could have a broad impact. They also consider commitment to diversity in science and demonstrated independence from mentors. 

Mishra was hired by NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2023 and is a faculty affiliate with the Global One Health Academy, Climate Solutions Collective and the Genetics and Genomics Academy. Mishra’s current line of research integrates advanced developmental and population methods, and it spans across the disciplines of biology, developmental and social psychology and population science. Specifically, her work focuses on adversity exposure and health, biological mechanisms of health disparities, psychosocial and behavioral influences on health and application of advanced methodological techniques to study human development. 

Mishra’s work was inspired by her experience as a visitation supervisor for a foster care agency in Indiana, where she helped families who continually experienced interpersonal adversity, trauma and victimization. She studied these topics extensively during her doctoral research at Purdue University and as a biosocial post-doctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“My research is unique and interdisciplinary because it combines my former community experience with my doctoral training in developmental science and quantitative methodology and my postdoctoral training in biosocial research and population science,” Mishra said. “Winning this award reinforces my strong desire to conduct research that spans across multiple disciplines — biology, psychology, population science and advanced analytic methods — to better understand the lifelong health implications of multilevel adversity and stress exposure.”

Founded in 1988, the APS has a global membership and is committed to combining traditional scientific values of rigor and transparency with innovative methods and practices in the conduct and application of research.