Linda Charmaraman, PhD

Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women and project director of the Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab. She conducts research funded by a 3-year National Institutes of Health grant to follow middle school students and their parents longitudinally in order to determine longer-term health and wellbeing effects due to early smartphone use, social media use, and gaming. One of the goals of her project is not only to prevent negative health effects of social media use but also to empower youth to use social media to increase connections with other people by giving and receiving social and emotional support through social media and finding ways to be more civically engaged.

Charmaraman has conducted research and evaluation on projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, William T. Grant Foundation, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Kellogg Foundation, Schott Foundation for Public Education, United Way, Borghesani Community Foundation, and AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

Charmaraman was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Asian American Psychology at Wellesley College and has guest lectured at Boston College and Northeastern University. Mentoring undergraduate and graduate students has always been a passion of hers, evidenced by her dedication to training, collaborating, presenting, and publishing academic papers with students from multiple institutions. Throughout her doctoral program, she was the coordinator of graduate student diversity recruitment in her department and an appointed student delegate of the Equity Committee.