Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes joined the Brown School in July 2012 as an assistant professor. Before coming to the Brown School, Butler-Barnes was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan’s School of Education affiliated with the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context. During her fellowship, she conducted research on how individual-level factors connected to Black youths’ cultural backgrounds (e.g., internal assets such as racial identity beliefs, religiosity) and ecological risk and resources (e.g., community violence, family and peer support) influence their achievement and psychological well-being outcomes.
During this time, she also was a research assistant with North Carolina Central University’s African American Faith Communities Project. In this role, Butler-Barnes investigated ways that faith communities support families and how families teach their children about their cultural heritage, examining such constructs as racial identity, racial socialization and theological orientation within Black Protestant faith communities.
