Karen Fraser Wyche, MSW, PhD
Karen Fraser Wyche, MSW, PhD, is a senior researcher at the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences and the College of Pharmacy, Howard University. Prior to coming to Howard, Dr. Wyche was a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and a co-investigator of the Terrorism and Disaster Center (National Child Traumatic Stress Network) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Wyche has been a member of both general academic, and academic medicine and health science faculties at public and private universities including Hunter College, Brown University, New York University and the University of Miami.
Wyche's research and writings focus on understanding the role of gender, socio-cultural and socio-economic factors in a variety of outcomes including mental and physical health, ethnic identity and community based interventions. She has extensive experience in working with low income and minority communities in program evaluation, training of service providers and community focused interventions. She is senior advisor to the HIV Center of Clinical and Behavioral Studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University.
Wyche has held many leadership roles throughout her academic career. These include service on the IRBs at Brown University and New York University where she also served as chair; membership on boards of Women’s Studies programs, promotion and tenure committees, and search committees for faculty and deans; departmental representative to the Faculty Senate at the University of Miami; university and external grant review committees; external reader at Brunel University (UK), and editorial board service.
Within APA, Wyche is a fellow in Div. 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women), Div. 12 (Society for Clinical Psychology) and Div. 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues). For Div. 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) she served as a Council Representative and held leadership positions in: the Section on Black Women, the Mentoring Committee, and co-chair of the Nominations and Election Committee; Recognition Committee; the Finance Committee, co-chair Early Career Mentor, and chair, Strategic Planning Committee.
Wyche is the 2009 recipient of the Sue Rosenberg Zalk award for Distinguished Service to the Society for the Psychology of Women. In Div. 12 Section IV (Clinical Psychology of Women), she held various positions on the Executive Committee, and for Div. 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues), she was one of the NGO representatives from that division to the United Nations in 1999 to 2002. She was a member of the APA Task Force for Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Social Class that became the Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES). In addition, she served on the Committee on International Relations and was chair of the Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP). Currently, Wyche is a member and current chair of the Board of the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest (BAPPI).
