Founder and director of the Racial Justice and Health Equity Research and Education Collaborative (RJHEREC), Dr. Kamesha Spates, is also the William S. Dietrich II Chair and professor in the Department of African Studies in the Dietrich school. Through RJHEREC she trains students, health equity scholars, and community members to work toward addressing the mental and physical impacts of structural oppression on black communities.
Dr. Spates is a first-generation college student, medical sociologist, and a funded health equity scholar. She is an internationally recognized scholar in intersectionality; US Race Relations and Anti-Black Racism; mental health, suicide, and trauma; and Race and Gender-Based Stressors.
Together with Brittany Slatton, she co-authored Hypersexual, Hyper Masculine? Gender, Race and Sexuality in the Identities of Contemporary Black Men (2014). Spates’ 2015 book, What Don't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger, African American Women and Suicide, features the voices of black women speaking on matters of struggle and suicide. Through these stories, Dr. Spates explores a few factors that contribute to black women’s resilience. Dr. Spates has also published over two dozen scientific articles that can be found in Essence Magazine, HuffPost, Cleveland News Channel Five, and in a host of other peer-reviewed journal outlets, including Social Problems, the Journal of Black Psychology, The Ohio Journal of Public Health, Death Studies, and Sex Roles.
She is currently working on several projects, examining the role of the black church in suicide prevention and mental health awareness, Northeast Ohio’s Black community’s readiness to address rising suicide rates, and mental health and suicide awareness in the Kenyan context. She is also working on a children's book to address suicide with young audiences.