Danielle Pandika

Danielle Pandika is a Research Scientist with the Social Development Research Group. Guided by her training in clinical psychology and substance use research, she studies substance use etiology, prevention interventions, and racial and ethnic minority health within a developmental and prevention science framework. Her current interest is in studying the etiology of racial and ethnic disparities in substance use in youth. She wants to identify the risk factors and mechanisms that drive disparities and the protective factors that promote equity in wellbeing. Her personal experiences as a first-generation college student and a proud, second-generation Filipina-Indonesian American have impressed upon her the importance of studying policy- and structural-level factors along with individual-level factors in her work.