Sophie Trawalter is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology and the Center on Social Disparities and Health (C2S) at the Institute for Policy Research. Sophie studies behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dynamics of interracial contact. Her dissertation examined whether behaviors during interracial contact reflect coping responses to stressful encounters. Sophie plans to extend this work by exploring short-term psychobiological outcomes (e.g., cortisol levels) and long-term health outcomes of interracial contact. Sophie received her B.A in Psychology and B.S. in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2002, and her Ph.D. in Psychological & Brain Sciences from Dartmouth College in 2006. When not thinking about psychology, she enjoys reading novels on the el, sneaking off to the Art Institute, and playing chess on her deck.