Claire Helpingstine, M.S.

About Me

Claire Helpingstine is a fourth-year doctoral student at Florida International University in the department of psychology. Her research focuses on the ways in which culture, context and social network processes influence the ways in which women and adolescent girls with a history of sex trafficking are perceived, and the role of these factors in women and adolescent girls' sex trafficking entry and exit.

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In 2020 Claire was awarded the Global Health Equity Scholar Predoctoral Fellowship through Fogarty National Institutes of Health – Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research. During this fellowship period, she will be at the Public Health Research Institute of India in Mysore where her project will examine survivors’ perceptions of sex trafficking in India, and their perceptions and experiences with formal support networks. She will also examine Indian formal support provider's perceptions and experiences working with survivors of sex trafficking. Taken together, the goal of this project is to provide intersectional and evidence-based recommendations for addressing sex trafficking, and enhanced treatment recommendations that are culturally informed and contextually relevant.