NEWS

Bertranna Muruthi

Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award 2018

Bertranna Muruthi is a doctoral graduate of the Marriage and Family Therapy program in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. Central to her research is the analysis of factors related to risk and resilience for immigrant families. She is developing interventions to advance the well-being of immigrant families in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Muruthi uses culturally responsive methods to examine the family as the unit of analysis within the context of communities and the organizations that serve them. She has provided vital knowledge on black immigrant mother-daughter communications about substance abuse and risky sexual behaviors at a time when black women remain one of the most vulnerable populations in the U.S. With a steady stream of external funding and 13 publications in peer-reviewed journals, she is on her way to becoming a powerhouse in the field of family sciences. She is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech.