Jewel D. Stafford serves as the director of the Racial Equity Fellowship Program in the Office of Field Education. She has more than 15 years of practice and research experience working with diverse communities. Her career has focused on training, research coordination, and program planning. Stafford has managed and implemented community-based initiatives that address racial inequities, promote partnerships and improve health outcomes. 

Her research agenda focuses on examining racial/ethnic health disparities among medically underserved communities, specifically black populations. Her current work explores the influence of acculturation and racial socialization on reproductive health outcomes for black communities. 

Stafford continues to collaborate with local, national and international organizations on the development of culturally appropriate tools and interventions that address racial inequities. She serves as Board President for Missouri’s Teen Pregnancy & Prevention Partnership, on Faith Communities United executive committee, as well as on Planned Parenthood of St. Louis’s community advisory board.

At the Brown School, Stafford teaches social policy analysis and evaluation, human behavior and the social environment, and foundation seminar courses. Prior to joining the Brown School, she  worked as a research lab supervisor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine, where she engaged community stakeholders, coordinated community based public health initiatives, and supervised research teams on federally funded research projects.