Aída Mencía Ripley facts for kids
Aída Teresa Mencía Ripley is an important academic from the Dominican Republic. She helps lead Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) in the Dominican Republic. Her job is to guide new research and ideas. She also holds a special position with UNESCO, where she studies how different backgrounds, like gender and culture, affect education and psychology.
Aída was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She grew up in New York City. Her mother is Aída Ripley Gómez, whose father, Enrique Ripley Marín, was a famous sportsman. Her father is Rafael Mencía Ochoa. She is also the niece of artist Geo Ripley. Her grandfather, Rafael Mencía Lister, was a diplomat for the Dominican Republic.
Education and Career
Aída Mencía-Ripley studied psychology at St. John's University and graduated with top honors. She then earned two master's degrees and a Ph.D. (a very high degree) in clinical psychology from St. John's University and the New School for Social Research. During her studies, she worked on research about stress and health.
She is a member of several important groups for psychologists and scientists. These include the American Psychological Association and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World. She also belongs to the Young Scientist Chapter of the Dominican Academy of Sciences.
Her main research areas are about gender, health psychology, and how language affects our minds.
Helping People Learn
Aída is a strong supporter of making education open to everyone in the Dominican Republic. From 2013 to 2017, she was a UNESCO Chair at UNIBE. In this role, she worked to help people with disabilities and special learning needs get a good education.
As a leader at UNIBE, she has worked hard to support research that helps people who face challenges. This includes groups who have been treated unfairly in healthcare and education. She also focuses on making sure research in developing countries is done in an ethical way. This means being respectful of different cultures, genders, and backgrounds.
Building Research at UNIBE
As the Dean of Research at UNIBE, she helped create many important research centers and programs. Some of these include:
- UNIBE's Institute for Tropical Medicine and Global Health
- The Center for Research in Biomaterials and Dentistry
- The Green Roof Laboratory
- The Neurocognition and Psychophysiology Laboratory
In 2021, she became the Vice-Chancellor. In this role, she led the creation of UNIBE's first Research and Innovation Hub. Her work as Vice-Chancellor focuses on growing research programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. She also works to build skills, especially for women, and strengthen UNIBE's research connections both locally and internationally.
Awards
Aída Mencía-Ripley has received several awards for her important work:
- In 2017, she won the José Salazar Award for the best research paper in the Revista Interamericana de Psicología.
- In 2021, Forbes Central America named her one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
- In 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic recognized her for promoting science for women in her country.
See also
In Spanish: Aída Mencía Ripley para niños
