Highlights

Kayla Saucedo is a Harvard University psychology graduate whose research focuses on the intersection of ethnic identity, structural stigma, psychopathology, and child development.

Her senior thesis, completed in the Biopsychosocial Effects of Stigma (BEST) Lab under Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler, examined structural xenophobia and Latinophobia and their associations with trauma and PTSD among Latino youth in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study.

The thesis was awarded the Gordon Allport Thesis Prize by Harvard’s Psychology Department in May 2025, recognising research of exceptionally high quality in Allport’s scholarly areas.

She is currently a Post-baccalaureate Child and Adolescent Fellow at McLean Hospital, working in the Child Partial Hospitalisation Programme with youth aged 7–13 experiencing ADHD, ASD, and related conditions. She wrote for Simply Psychology between November 2022 and May 2023.

Professional Experience

• Post-baccalaureate Child and Adolescent Fellow, McLean Hospital (2025–present)
• Research Assistant, Harris Early Childhood Lab, Harvard Graduate School of Education (2024–2025)
• Research Assistant, BEST Lab, Harvard University (2023–2025)
• Writer, Simply Psychology (2022–2023)
• Marketing and Communications Intern, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University (2023–2025)
• Congressional Intern, Office of Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (2022)

Education

• BA Psychology, Mind, Brain and Behaviour, Harvard University (2025)

Honours

• Gordon Allport Thesis Prize, Harvard Psychology Department (2025)
• Ethnicity, Migration, Rights Summer Thesis Research Grant, Harvard University (2024)

Publications