Janet E. Helms is an American research psychologist known for her study of ethnic minority issues.

Helms' master's thesis focused on attrition and the test scores of black students.

From 1977 to 1981 she had a full-time academic position in the psychology department at Southern Illinois University,[2] where she began to think of race as something she could address through her research.

During her time there she could tell there wasn't much literature on race, so she soon published an article focusing on black women.

In 2000, Helms accepted a tenured faculty position at Boston College where she is the Augustus Long Professor of Counseling Psychology.

[2] Helms work focuses on how race, culture and gender can influence one's personality and participating counseling styles.

She has found through her research that race has predicted many outcomes, including stress reactions, performance on standardized tests, and the supervisor/supervisee experience.