Tashel Bordere, Ph.D.

Tashel Bordere serves as an Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Science and State Extension Specialist – Youth Development at the University of Missouri – Columbia. She conducts research and specializes in youth development, dying, loss & bereavement and African-American children, youth and families. Dr. Bordere’s participatory action research and programming areas are focused on Black male youth and family grief, survival and resilience due to historical and contemporary race-based trauma and sudden violent losses. She developed the concept of “suffocated grief” to describe the experiences of being penalized for normal grief responses based on stigma (stereotypes of black males as aggressive) and discrimination (punishment for normal emotional expression) in lieu of support and safe spaces for coping and connection. She also created the MU Extension Program – S.H.E.D. Loss and Grief Tools for Schools as a training in awareness, knowledge, and skill development for administrators, staff, counselors, and other professionals interfacing with marginalized youth and families in schools and communities.