Bio

As a graduate of the Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University, I recently completed a dissertation entitled, Precious Opportunities: Black Girl Stories and Resistance Pedagogies as Critical Race Feminist Responses to the Childhood Obesity Epidemic.  My research interests are feminist body studies, critical race studies, and media literacy related to health education and healthy body narratives for youth. For my dissertation research, I developed Camp Carrot Seed, a summer camp, for middle and high school youth in order to examine their food decision-making over time.  I employed participatory action research working directly with teenagers to observe their eating habits and to determine accessible foods and natural resources in their communities.  The eight-week camp centered on four core pedagogic projects: organic gardening, food shopping and preparation, and local environmental stewardship activities as Critical Race Organizing Projects (CROPs) intended to provide culturally relevant and age-appropriate interventions for public health concerns regarding youth.

As an engaged scholar, my work beyond the academy has included healthy food choice workshops with childcare providers as well as elementary and middle school youth at Wesley International Academy and Coan Middle School. As a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program, I continue to collaborate with a network of social environmentalists in west Atlanta to mobilize youth engagement with environmental projects such as creek and neighborhood clean up projects.  I supplemented my academic training with an Emory Center for Science Education fellowship in problem-based learning at The New Schools at Carver High School.   As an interdisciplinary scholar, I have worked with a diversity of professors in the humanities, social sciences, and medical sciences.  Currently I am working on collaborative community-based health and environmental projects with the HEALing Community Center, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA), and Visions of Rainy Inc as well as completing a postdoc and teaching at Spelman College.