2024 Black History Month Faculty Spotlight
Mignonne C. Guy
Associate Professor, African American Studies, College of Humanities and Sciences
Dr. Mignonne C. Guy imparts knowledge on health inequities in Black communities and research methodologies. Her expertise lies in researching health inequities related to cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Leading initiatives to combat systemic racism in research and promote cancer prevention among Black populations, she has been Principal and Co-Investigator on federal and foundation-funded grants $60 million. Holding influential appointments, she serves on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services CDC Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health and the FDA Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. She is co-founder and a member of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco's Racial and Equity Task Force and serves as an advisory board member for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the EX® Advisory Council for the Truth Initiative. More about Dr. Guy >>
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Carlos Stringer Smith
Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence, Ethics, and Community Engagement and Associate Professor, Dental Public Health and Policy, School of Dentistry
An international voice in dental and health professions education, Dr. Smith's interdisciplinary work centers various roles as clinician, ethicist, scholar, ordained clergy and sought after speaker. He is a member of the board of directors of the Academy for Professionalism in Health Care and is currently President-Elect of the American Society for Dental Ethics. His scholarly activity currently focuses on conceptualizing a reimagined professionalism inclusive of critical consciousness and identity, the history of racism in healthcare, inclusive excellence in dental education, and provider wellbeing and burnout. Dr. Smith continues as a general dentist within the VCU Dental Faculty Practice, is co-advisor to the VCU chapter of SNDA and supports the Aligned and Allied student group. He is a key thought leader across both the VCU Monroe Park and Health Sciences campuses, as well as the health system, for his commitment to inclusive excellence and health equity. More about Dr. Smith >>
Arnethea L. Sutton
Assistant Professor and PI of the Cancer Advocacy and Research for Equity in Survivorship (CARES) Lab, Kinesiology and Health Sciences, College of Humanities and Sciences
Dr. Arnethea Sutton is a trained cancer disparities researcher with expertise in survivorship, cardio-oncology, and survey methods. Her research, guided by her lab’s community advisory board, broadly focuses on identifying multilevel factors, particularly social determinants of health and psychosocial factors, that contribute to racial disparities in cardiovascular disease in breast cancer survivors. Dr. Sutton teaches “Health Disparities in the United States”, a course that provides undergraduate students an understanding of race as a social construct, various types of health disparities (e.g., geographical, racial), and the interplay between structural factors, health outcomes, and disparities. More about the C.A.R.E.S. Lab >>
MK Abadoo
Assistant Professor, Dance, School of the Arts
MK Abadoo chairs the Racial, Equity, Arts, and Culture Core of VCU’s Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation. Their ​creative research devises intergenerational dance theater that is place-honoring and accountable to community partners. They were a 2017 U.S. Fulbright Fellow and are a 2022 Dance/USA Fellow of Dance for Social Change. In 2019, she co-directed and led the choreography of the commemorative justice site-specific work, “Untold RVA presents Brother General Gabriel,” at Richmond’s African Ancestral Burial Ground. Their current creative research, “Hoptown,”is inspired by two women from her ancestral hometown of Hopkinsville, “Hoptown,” Kentucky: her mother, Regina Bowden, and black feminist author, bell hooks. MK teaches across departmental curriculum and also launched two new interdisciplinary courses: “Dance and Community Justice,” and “Dance and Commemorative Justice.”
Cecelia Valrie
Associate Professor, Psychology, College of Humanities and Sciences
Sickle cell disease (SCD) occurs in 1 in 365 Black US newborns. Dr. Valrie's research aims to improve health outcomes for people with SCD and Black youth, with a focus on understanding persistent pain, sleep problems, and health inequities. She works with health care providers, researchers, people with SCD, Black youth, and their families to develop, test, and implement interventions to improve health outcomes and promote health equity in these populations. Dr. Valrie’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Society of Hematology. She also provides research mentorship to many undergraduate and graduate students. More about Dr. Valrie >>
Mychal Smith
Assistant Professor, Chemistry, College of Humanities and Sciences
Mychal D. Smith is a teaching assistant professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University. He teaches a section of all Biochemistry-related courses and leads a STEM community service-learning class in partnership with JL Francis Elementary School (5th Grade). As a mentor, Mychal co-PIs on NSF's Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP Undergraduate and Graduate) grants and serves as Graduate Program Director for NIH's Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Program. More recently, he was invited to work with VCU’s transfer community as a co-MPI on NIH's VCU Bridges to Baccalaureate: Dream to Goal grant.
Jayme N. Canty
Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, College of Humanities and Sciences
Dr. Jayme N. Canty is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies with a dual appointment as a faculty member with the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation (iCubed) in the “Intersections of the Lives of LGBTQIA+” core, an interdisciplinary program designed to provide visibility of LGBTQIA+ persons with multiple marginalized identities through community-based research and service. Her current research discusses the ways that geographic location (the American South) impacts the lives of Southern Black queer lesbian women and gender non-conforming persons, addressing the ways this location plays a significant role in how they actualize their Blackness and queerness in the South. This discussion is outlined in her forthcoming manuscript, Snapping Beans: Voices of a Black Queer Lesbian South, which will be published August 2024 under SUNY Press. At VCU, she designed a cross listed course entitled “Black Queer Politics,” which takes a radical Black feminist approach to the ways Black queer persons engage in the political realm.
Shermaine M. Jones
Assistant Professor, English, College of Humanities and Sciences
As a Black womanist scholar-teacher, Dr. Shermaine Jones asserts that the personal is not only political but also pedagogical for women of color. She writes and teaches to make sense of the world; to survive the spaces she inhabits. These guiding questions animate her research interventions, antiracist pedagogy, advocacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion in her service to the university and community: How does literature help us to better understand the concerns of our moment and imagine a more equitable future? How can we cultivate the classroom as space of hope and liberation? More about Dr. Jones >>
Ana F. Diallo
Assistant Professor, Family and Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing
Dr. Diallo joined VCU in 2018 and holds a joint position as an Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing and the Office of Institutional Equity, Effectiveness and Success. She also serves as a clinical faculty in a community-based care coordination program called the Mobile Health and Wellness Program. Dr. Diallo's research focuses on integrating nutrition, clinical and genomic data to develop tailored nutrition interventions in the management of cardiovascular disease risk factors in racial/ethnic minority groups. She is particularly interested in studying how sex differences influence gene-diet interactions on cholesterol levels and how to address the lack of representation of minority groups in research. More about Dr. Diallo >>
Elvin T. Price
Associate Professor, Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science, School of Pharmacy
Dr. Elvin T. Price is the Victor A. Yanchick Associate Professor of Pharmacy. He serves as the Director of the Geriatric Pharmacotherapy Program and the Co-Director of the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry, and Innovation (iCubed) Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan Core. Elvin earned the Doctor of Pharmacy degree (Pharm.D.) from Florida A&M University and his Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Florida. Elvin uses community-based approaches to evaluate the impact of genetics on aging, health behaviors, and medication responsiveness. Elvin is enthusiastic about improving the health of others and educating the next generation. Elvin and his wife Andrea serve as the pastoral team of the Beulah AME Church in Farmville, VA. Elvin and Andrea are the proud parents of a son (Henry) and a daughter (Heidi). More about Dr. Price >>
Maurice N. Gattis
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Dr. Gattis has engaged in research activities regarding health disparities; LGBTQIA+ populations; and homelessness; in the United States, South Africa and Canada. His work has been funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fulbright, the State of Virginia, the State of Wisconsin, Just Fund Kentucky, Wisconsin Partnership Program, and Schaberg Foundation. He also comments in the press and has been quoted in several media outlets, including NBC News, WLKY-TV, Virginia Public Radio and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Additionally, he is co-founder and founding board chair of Sweet Evening Breeze, a non-profit that provides services and shelter to LGBTQIA+ youth experiencing homelessness in Louisville, KY. Since joining the faculty of VCU in 2019 he has been awarded approximately $2.8 million dollars in research funding. More about Dr. Gattis >>
