Dr. Valerie Jones Taylor is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Africana Studies at Lehigh University. She earned a doctorate in social psychology at Stanford University and a B.A. in psychology and ethnic studies, with a concentration in African & African American Studies, at the University of Texas at Austin. Taylor previously served as an assistant professor at Spelman College and was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. Her research areas include intergroup relations, social identity threat, stereotyping and discrimination, and cultural psychology. Specifically, she investigates how stereotyping and prejudice affect underrepresented groups' academic performance, interracial interactions, and the treatment of racialized physical spaces. Her research also examines ways to improve interracial encounters in educational and social contexts using virtual reality. Dr. Taylor is currently the recipient of an NSF CAREER award to examine VR interracial interactions in STEM. ​