The Texas Leadership Research Scholars Program, which debuted in Fall 2024, is a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board research scholarship and leadership opportunity program for high-achieving graduate students with financial need.

UNT was among only nine public universities in the state selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of the program, which awards selected doctoral researchers a nearly $18,000 scholarship renewable for up to four years.

“The TLRS program provides access and opportunity to exceptional doctoral scholars to excel in their research, academics and graduate life. The funding removes barriers for our scholars as they expand their career and life experiences to be readied for the workforce. This investment by the state of Texas is highly impactful and life-changing for UNT's doctoral students,” says Brenda Barrio, UNT associate vice president for graduate studies and student research.

Read Raven Gipson-Washington's story below and check back on the UNT Research website throughout Summer 2026 to learn more about other students in the inaugural group of Texas Leadership Research Scholars.

A Psychologist for the Community

Raven Gipson-Washington knows just what kind of psychologist she wants to be.

“I hope to be a cool millennial doctor,” she says. “I'll go by Dr. Raven. My dream is to run a very robust private practice. It's somewhere on the Texas countryside, because I'm a Texas girl, where we can do things like traditional therapy, but also incorporate other things, like horse or equine-assisted therapy, walk and talks, and yoga. My practice will include other psychologists and specialists, master’s level clinicians, interns and externs. My dream is to be a pillar in the community, someone who's culturally informed, culturally responsive, empathetic, and action-oriented.”

She’s on her way. The doctoral student in psychology was named one of the Texas Coordinating Board of Higher Education’s Texas Leadership Research Scholars. The program provides funding and opportunities for her to pursue the work she wants to do — developing culturally-informed holistic wellness frameworks and interventions and tackling gendered racial issues that impact the mental wellbeing of Black women, such as the strong Black woman schema.

“It's confirmation that you're doing the right thing, that the work that you do matters, and it's valuable to people. As a Black woman studying Black women's wellbeing, for someone to see my work and see all of my leadership, for them to acknowledge that and want to invest in that, that means everything to me.”

Gipson-Washington was inspired to go into this type of research while reading assigned articles during her master’s degree studies at another Texas college.

“I quickly realized that Black women were missing in the literature. I was like, I can really get creative and tackle some issues that I really care about, filling some of these pervasive gaps. It just invigorated me from the very beginning, and I thought, ‘That's what I want to do.’”

Gipson-Washington chose UNT after coming across the work of Martinque Jones, associate professor of psychology, and the Black Women's Wellness Lab. Now in her second year at UNT, Gipson-Washington is preparing for her dissertation, where she is developing a holistic wellness model for Black women that, instead of current models informed by Euro-Western philosophy, will be informed by African, Eastern and Native American principles and worldviews. Her model will also incorporate women-centered dimensions of wellness that are often missing or decentered in these conversations, such as caregiving duties, the mental management and balancing of various domains of women’s lives, and external pressures.

Gipson-Washington, who is expected to graduate in 2029, is already helping others. She has founded the Black Women's Wellness Club, a community initiative that includes in-person wellness events such as hikes and walk and talks, as well as virtual programs like a book club and community wellness challenges. She also engages in public scholarship where she educates her online community on topics related to psychology, mental health and holistic wellness on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as @theravenkye.

“It's pivotal for me to be able to bridge the ivory tower with the real world. We learn all these amazing things and new information, and we're not even able to relay that information to our people. It tends to stay in textbooks or scientific journals. If I learn something in class or read about some really interesting study outcomes and results, let me tell you what I learned. I love taking something complex, making it easily digestible and then making it applicable to someone's everyday life.”