Most recently, Dr. Abdou co-authored a first of it’s kind study that “found evidence that the persistent health disparities across race may, in part, be related to anxiety about being confronted by negative racial stereotypes while receiving healthcare.” Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Abdou completed a postdoctoral fellowship in social epidemiology and population health as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of Michigan. Abdou received her Ph.D. in social and health psychology, minoring in statistics, from UCLA in 2008. In 2000, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami with a degree in psychology and art.