Arielle has always been fascinated in the people’s life stories, with a desire to understand the underlying mechanisms of human behavior (e.g., why people do what they do). This curiosity and passion drove her to pursue her master’s in clinical and counseling health psychology. Following her degree, Arielle had a career as a family therapist at a non-profit in a county outside of Philadelphia. In this role, Arielle worked as a therapist and advocate for children at risk of out-of-home placement and their families. Firsthand, she worked with people in society struggling with mental health, chronic stressors, and systemic barriers. In her second year as a family therapist, she felt the call to make a bigger impact in society.

In addition to the intimate and rich experience with families, Arielle has always been drawn to justice and equality of all humans in our world. Feeling deeply and resonating with sociological courses in her undergraduate, where she learned the feminist rally concept of the personal is political, made Arielle aware of her passion for learning and understanding politics. As she continued to gain life experience and education, Arielle became more aware of how each of these aspects are interrelated. This guided her to pursue research in political psychology. Specifically, she aims to deeply understand how individuals and groups form candidate evaluations. Some of the specific areas Arielle is interested in include whether generalized beliefs, or stereotypes, affect women candidates. Additionally, how positionality, or the social and political context that creates one’s identity (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status), affects voting behavior.