Rate My Professor Robin Everhart

Robin S. Everhart, Ph.D., serves as Professor and Co-Director of Graduate Studies in the Health Psychology area in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University, completed a Pediatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship and Clinical Internship at Brown Medical School, and holds a B.S. from Duke University. A licensed clinical psychologist in Virginia, Dr. Everhart currently holds a grant-funded position as the mental health coordinator of the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.

Dr. Everhart’s program of research centers on chronic disease management from a family systems perspective, particularly pediatric pulmonary diseases including asthma and cystic fibrosis, situated within contexts of equity, culture, community engagement, and urban stressors. Her community-partnered work addresses health inequities through initiatives such as the RVA Breathes asthma intervention program, developed, implemented, and evaluated in a randomized clinical trial. She has secured funding as Principal Investigator from the National Institutes of Health, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, Society of Pediatric Psychology, and VCU’s Quest Fund. Additional research examines tobacco use prevention among African American youth with asthma, treatment adherence and mental health in cystic fibrosis, and resilience strategies in low-income urban families, including links between daily stress, adaptability, and inflammatory markers. Select publications include "Main outcomes from the RVA Breathes randomized controlled trial" (Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 2024), "Giving adolescents with cystic fibrosis a voice: Predicting cystic fibrosis nutritional adherence from their decision-making involvement" (Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 2024), "Perceived stress, religiosity, and substance use in African American and Latinx college students with asthma in the USA" (Journal of Religion and Health, 2023), "Changes in caregiver mental health and pediatric asthma control during COVID-19" (Journal of Asthma, 2023), and "A community-based asthma program: Study design and methods of RVA Breathes" (Contemporary Clinical Trials, 2020). Dr. Everhart has received the Eminent Scholar Award from VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences (2018), Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award from the VCU Department of Psychology (2017), and Outstanding Teaching Award from the VCU Department of Psychology (2015). She participates in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s PRIME Working Group and STRC, and teaches courses including Child Health Psychology and Psychological Tests and Measurement.