2020 Feminist Manuscript Award Recipient
Yarneccia D. Dyson, PhD, MSW, is an equity-minded thought leader committed to inclusive excellence and social justice. As a social and behavioral scientist, Dr. Dyson performs health disparities research that focuses on reducing and alleviating negative health outcomes by empowering marginalized communities through implementation science. She is assistant professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), where she teaches in the Joint Master of Social Work Program. She served on the development committee for the newly formed Joint PhD Program with North Carolins A &T State University.
Dr. Dyson grounds her teaching, scholarship, and research in empowerment-based theories and frameworks. She is a Black feminist scholar who embodies collectivism and supporting others. To this end, she uses Black feminist theory, womanism, and intersectionality as epistemological lenses to explore and understand the lived experiences of communities expoeriencing maladative health outcomes. She is the principal investigator of Engage3 , a pilot study that tests the feasibility of an HIV prevention intervention that she developed based on findings from an initial study that addressed the sexual health needs of Black college students enrolled at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions. With more than 20 years experience, Dr. Dyson is a co-principal investigator on two Health Resources and Services Administration awards totaling $3 million that helps MSW students obtain training in integrated health-care settings and training to work with opioid use disorder and other substance use disorder affected communities. She served as the project manager on a National Institutes of Health (R15) funded barbershop study and delivers sexual health-based prevention interventions to African American fathers, teaching them how to facilitate discussions regarding safer sex behaviors and disease prevention. Since 2019, she has seved on a subaward with Winston-Salem State University for the National Science Foundation Excellence in Research Grant Program.
Yarneccia D. Dyson is committed to faculty development with emphases on peer mentoring and supporting the success of Black women and women of color scholars in the academy. In addition to research and scholarship, Dr. Dyson provides service to professional organizations. She served as chair of the CSWE African Americans and the African Diaspora Track and co-chair of the CSWE Council on Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity. She participates in the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Emerging leader-Scholar Initiative. Dr. Dyson is chair of the UNCG Department of Social Work Subcommittee of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and the Subcommittee on Social Behavioral Sciences for University Research Grants. As a true believer in ubuntu and the importance of "lift as you climb," Dr. Dyson mentors many students and has served on dissertation committees across the southeastern United States. She serves on various editorial boards and has served as guest editor and guest co-editor on special issues that highlighted the brilliant work of social work education at HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions.
Dr. Dyson is a graduate of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work at Clark Atlanta University, where she earned a PhD in social work policy, planning, and administration and social science (cognate: public health). She obtained a BSW from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and an MSW in clinical social work grom Florida State University.