After nearly three years in Hawthorne s lab, though, she s decided to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry. This has given me so much confidence, she says. I learn through direct experience in the lab. Then, when I encounter the same material in my classes, it all makes sense. I still make mistakes, but now I know that no one has all the answers.
Research is about having the confidence to try things.
Then her interest was piqued by a flier recruiting research assistants to a Department of Psychology project examining stress and anger as possible risk factors for hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. Growing up African American in a small, segregated Arkansas community, Revels knew from an early age that she wanted to attend medical school. She resolved to become a physician specializing in cardiology. Eventually, she says, she would like to practice in a hospital located in an economically disadvantaged minority community. Revels was drawn to the research of a group headed by Dr. Christine Dunkel Schetter, an associate professor of psychology, because of its focus on how certain stressors affect hypertension, a particular concern among African Americans.