Black Women and Resilience: Power, Perseverance, and Public Health
About the Co-Editors
Kisha Braithwaite Holden
Kisha B. Holden, PhD, MSCR, is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is a psychologist, Poussaint-Satcher Endowed Chair in Mental Health, and Associate Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). Also at MSM, Dr. Holden is Professor and Director of Research & Scholarship for the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; and Professor in the Department of Community Health & Preventive Medicine. Dr. Holden is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University, School of Medicine. Dr. Holden earned undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees from Howard University in counseling psychology, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in both the School of Medicine and School of Public Health. She earned a Master of Science in Clinical Research degree from MSM. She has completed professional leadership development trainings at Brandeis University, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Prior to joining MSM, Dr. Holden held positions at Georgetown University, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Urban Health Institute, Children’s National Medical Center, and Evaluation and Research Associates, Inc.
Dr. Holden serves on many national, regional, and local boards/committees; she is a reviewer for several academic journals; and she has received professional awards from various organizations and agencies. She has been awarded millions of dollars in research funding from public and private sources; co-edited three books-African American Women: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press), Social Determinants of African American Men (Jossey-Bass), and Health Equity, African Americans, and Public Health (APHA Press); developed several book chapters; published numerous articles in peer-reviewed academic journals; and served as a guest co-editor for Ethnicity and Disease, Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, and the American Psychologist. Dr. Holden has provided numerous presentations at international, national, regional, and local professional conferences/meetings/symposiums/forums. Globally, she has studied and/or provided trainings in Greece, Italy, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Spain and various Caribbean countries (St. Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, Cuba, Haiti, & U.S. Virgin Islands). Dr. Holden has dedicated her career to encouraging mental health and well-being among ethnically and culturally diverse families through research, programmatic initiatives, and the development of innovative strategies for informing health policies. She has placed a special emphasis on addressing the needs of underserved and underrepresented populations that are often overlooked, yet prevail in contributing to the myriad of health disparities. She aims to: (1) promote excellence in community-based clinical and translational mental health research, (2) develop innovative programs that improve accessibility of individuals to comprehensive healthcare, and (3) develop culturally centered, gender specific, resilience based prevention and intervention models for individuals at risk for depression. She is an advocate for the Lupus Foundation of America, Atlanta Ballet, and Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., A Public Service Sorority.
Contact: Kholden@msm.edu
Camara Phyllis Jones
Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD is a family physician, epidemiologist, and Past President of the American Public Health Association whose work focuses on naming, measuring, and addressing the impacts of racism on the health and well-being of our nation and the world.
Dr. Jones is currently a Leverhulme Visiting Professor in Global Health and Social Medicine at King’s College London in the United Kingdom. She recently completed her tenure as the 2021-2022 Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Francisco.
She previously taught six years at the Harvard School of Public Health, served fourteen years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was a 2019-2020 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and a 2021 Presidential Visiting Fellow at the Yale School of Medicine. She continues as an Adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and as a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Dr. Jones is celebrated for her allegories on "race" and racism because they illuminate topics that are otherwise difficult for many Americans to understand or discuss. Recognizing that racism saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources, she aims to inspire and equip ALL Americans to engage in a sustained National Campaign Against Racism with three tasks: Name racism. Ask “How is racism operating here?”. Organize and strategize to act.
Contact: cpjones@msm.edu