Kiara Sanchez is a PhD candidate in Stanford’s Department of Psychology. She is a member of the Dweck-Walton Lab, led by Dr. Greg Walton and Dr. Carol Dweck, and the Race & Social Inequality Lab, led by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt. Her research focuses on understanding and improving cross-race relationships and communication in friendships, education, and online settings. Before Stanford, Kiara received her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Rice University. Kiara’s dissertation focuses on how cross-race friends talk about their race-related experiences and how these conversations can impact closeness, authenticity, and learning. One set of studies, published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP), focused on the beliefs Black and White friends have about these conversations and found that conversations about race pose a threatening opportunity: Both Black and White friends perceive simultaneous benefits and risks to discussing race-based experiences with cross-race friends. In ongoing work, she examines real time conversations between Black and White friends and tests theory-based strategies to support the goals and benefits that people see for themselves in communicating about race and racism.