Dr. Xavier Scruggs is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Dr. Scruggs is a political and family communication scholar that studies racial socialization messages in Black families, and how those messages impact our trust in systems (e.g., law enforcement, healthcare) and management of mental health. He also studies political socialization; specifically, how political conflict can divide families. His research has been published in the Journal of Family Communication and Communication Reports. He has also published book chapters about how racism and sexism attitudes impacted individuals’ debate evaluations of the 2020 Vice Presidential debate and he examined how families communicated about race, politics, and health in 2020. Dr. Scruggs is a proud Ronald E. McNair Scholar. In his community, he serves on the Citizen’s Police Review Board and is currently the Vice Chair of the Political Communication Division of Central States Communication Association.