RAPID & The Researchers Investigating Sociocultural Equity and Race (RISER) Network Partnership

The Researchers Investigating Sociocultural Equity and Race (RISER) Network - is a collaboration between senior, mid-level, and junior scholars working together to conduct applied child development research focused on the positive development of Black children. Led by Dr. Stephanie M. Curenton at the Center on the Ecology of Early Development (CEED) at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and Dr. Iheoma U. Iruka at the Equity Research Action Coalition at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, the RISER Network is dedicated to research, policy, and practice that focuses on the positive development of Black children and how racism affects health disparities during child development.


RAPID and the RISER Network began collaborating in 2020 to gather timely and ongoing data and parent voices through the RAPID surveys on parents’ and providers’ experiences of racism and discrimination. RISER scholars summarized analyses of those data in the first-of-its-kind ​report in 2021: Black Parent Voices: Resilience in the Face of the Two Pandemics – COVID-19 and Racism. RISER and RAPID’s close partnership includes ongoing collaboration to collect data from parents and providers on new items and questions through the RAPID surveys, conduct analyses and develop manuscripts for academic publications, and disseminate actionable research.

Papers resulting from this partnership include: