Ellen Kang is an economic anthropologist whose research agenda focuses on community-based provisioning efforts.  More specifically she studies ways urban agriculture is utilized to address food insecurity.  Currently, she is conducting an ethnographic study of the impact of Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm’s Agrihood Baltimore Initiative.  Previously, she studied a community gardening network, in Chicago, which distributed food through a non-profit gardeners market in a black neighborhood that was a food desert.  Her other research pursuits include a mixed-methods study aimed at diversifying Public Health faculty, to generate greater equity in Public Health research.  At Morgan, she has taught Research Methods to Public Health Masters students, and previously she taught introductory and upper-level Sociology courses, as well as classroom and laboratory Anthropology courses.

Dr. Steven Dashiell is an Assistant Research Professor at the Center for Urban Health Equity at Morgan State University. He began his work in Baltimore contributing to HIV prevention and education, working for organizations like HERO, Metro Teen AIDS (in Washington DC), and AIRS.  Steven’s research focuses on how masculinity, culture and society interact in male-dominated spaces. He studies areas like gaming communities, leisure subcultures, the military and spaces designed for African-American men. Through his work, he explores how these environments shape identity and social interactions.

Dr. Christopher Chauncey Watson is an internationally recognized public health researcher and systems theorist, dedicated to advancing equitable outcomes across sectors. With a career spanning over two decades, Dr. Watson’s work integrates systems theory to uncover and address the complex interactions that perpetuate disparities in healthcare, entrepreneurship, and social systems. His research provides actionable strategies for dismantling systemic barriers and fostering inclusion, innovation, and sustainability.

Dr. Watson’s research portfolio explores critical topics such as defining Black Gay Leadership, the intersection of Black gay communication and HIV prevention, health systems navigation strategies, and LGBTQ entrepreneurship. By examining these areas through the lens of systems theory, Dr. Watson has developed groundbreaking frameworks that connect individual experiences to broader structural challenges, offering transformative solutions to advance equity. His work has been published in leading journals and influenced global practices in health equity and clinical trial diversity.

In his role as an Executive in Residence at Morgan State University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Urban Health Equity, Dr. Watson leads interdisciplinary studies focused on social determinants of health and implementation outcomes. His mentorship of emerging scholars and practitioners continues to shape the future of public health and equity-focused research. Watson’s unique approach bridges sectors, applying systems thinking to identify solutions that drive equitable outcomes in multiple sectors and industries.

Dr. Sturdavant is a Research Associate Professor in the Morgan State University, Center for Urban Health Equity, whose experience as a public health practitioner spans academic, government and clinical settings. She has served as the Principal Investigator of a SAMHSA funded community-based intervention program for young adults; an Evaluation Fellow with the Army Institute of Public Health; and as a Clinical Case Manager for children and adolescents with mental health needs.

Her research has involved exploring the role of mental health in juvenile justice outcomes among serious offenders and working with community-based organizations to assess the mental health needs of returning citizens post incarceration. Additionally, Dr. Sturdavant has examined adverse childhood experiences, deaths of despair, and disparities in opioid overdose outcomes among Maryland adults during her time with the MDH Behavioral Health Administration, Office of Applied Research and Evaluation.

Dr. Sturdavant is an Alumna of the MSU, School of Community Health and Policy, earning her Doctorate in Public Health with a concentration in Social and Behavioral Health Science in 2015. Her research interests include community mental health and wellbeing, health inequities across the life course and community led solutions to social and systemic determinants of health in urban settings.

Lawrence T. Brown is a scholar, equity scientist, and urban Afro-futurist.  His first book The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in January 2021.  The Black Butterfly was the #1 selling book in 2021 at three independent bookstores in the city: Urban Reads Bookstore, Greedy Reads, and Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse.

Dr. Brown is currently working as a research scientist in the new Center for Urban Health Equity, where he is leading the Black Butterfly Rising Initiative which aims to make Black neighborhoods matter.  This initiative will feature innovative mapping/data products, a history exhibit, a reading club, and community convenings.  He is working on his next book tentatively titled Building the Abolition Democracy.