Angela "Angee" K. Stevens

April 1st, 1989 – August 1st, 2021

Dr. Angela Kay Stevens (Angee), age 32, passed away on Sunday, August 1st, 2021. She was the only child of Kay Frances Letson Stevens (1953 – 2015) and Roger Dale Stevens.

Angee was born in Decatur, Alabama, where she grew up as an active and competitive young girl. Angee started gymnastics at the age of 3 and competed fiercely for 13 years. Around age 16, she decided to drop gymnastics and focus on tennis. She played tennis through high school and as a Division III athlete in college.

Angee graduated from Decatur High School in 2007. She received a BS degree with Honors from Birmingham-Southern College in 2011, majoring in Biology-Psychology. Following graduation, Angee attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she received a Master of Public Health degree in 2012. Furthering her education, she enrolled in a doctoral program and moved from Alabama to Lubbock, Texas to attend Texas Tech University (TTU). During this time, she began a research career that focused on the interplay of impulsivity, impaired control, and problematic substance use in young adults. Angee received many honors as a student at TTU, including the Clinical Research Award, the Best Graduate Lab Teaching Assistant Award, and the Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship. She obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology in 2019.

Angee met her husband Ryan Blake in 2015 at TTU. Ryan swept her off her feet by taking her to an amazing Mexican restaurant for their first date, which was one of Angee’s favorite foods. On August 13th, 2017, Ryan and Angee went hiking in Palo Duro Canyon. Ryan proposed that day and she accepted. They were married on September 30th, 2019 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and spent their honeymoon in New Hampshire. During their time in Rhode Island, Angee and Ryan enjoyed exploring miles of coastline, eating amazing food, and taking in the beautiful scenery.

To finish her PhD, Angee completed her Residency at the Clinical Psychology Training Consortium in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University from 2018 – 2019. She then received a Post-doctoral fellowship at the Center of Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University, where she continued her important research on substance use and related problems. Angee published thirty-six peer reviewed articles during her short career. She received multiple awards, including a 2021 Award for Outstanding Paper by an Early Career Investigator from the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Angee also received the 2021 Sharon Chauncey Fellow Award. This annual award honors the most generous and collegial postdoctoral fellow as recognized by their peers.

Angee accomplished more in her 32 years than most could hope to achieve in a lifetime. She was a lovely person to be around and was well-known for her passion for research and her commitment to working in addiction studies. She was always exceptionally generous with her time and efforts to help others and she was highly respected by her peers. More than that, Angee was an authentic, witty, brilliant force to be reckoned with, all while being humble about her many accomplishments. Angee will be greatly missed.

Angee is survived by her husband Ryan Blake of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and her father, Roger Dale Stevens of Alabama, and her most beloved pet Cowboy.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of the following organizations:

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

https://ncadv.org/donate

The Crisis Services of North Alabama

https://donorbox.org/crisis-services-of-north-alabama-donor-partnership?default_interval=o

The Compassion Prison Project

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=QMXCLDE8G4722

Brady United Against Gun Violence

https://www.bradyunited.org/donate/tax

Her maternal grandparents were James Travis Letson (1924 – 1973) and Robert Edith Davis Letson Parris (1927 – 2020). Her paternal grandparents were Dewey Wayne Stevens (1924 – 2018) and Dorothy Ann Williams Stevens (1929 – 2009).