Jennifer M. Gómez, PhD, board member and chair of the Research Advisory Committee at the Center for Institutional Courage, is an assistant professor at Boston University School of Social Work and Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health. She is also a member of the Scientific Committee at the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD) and the American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Task Force for Culturally Informed Trauma & Grief Kits. Additionally, Dr. Gómez was a guest co-editor of two special issues in Journal of Trauma & Dissociation: Discrimination, Violence, & Healing in Marginalized Communities (2021) and Self Injury & Suicidality: The Impact of Trauma & Dissociation (2015). Finally, she is a former fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University (2021-22), National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Kavli Fellow (2019), and Ford Fellow (2015–16; 2018–19). Having published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, other scholarly writings, professional development documents, and pieces for the general public in the areas of violence & inequality, Dr. Gómez created cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT) as a Black feminist theoretical framework for empirically examining violence and mental, physical, behavioral, and cultural health outcomes for Black and other marginalized youth, young adults, and elders within the impactful context of structural inequality. Her work has already advanced thinking in violence research, with invitations to share her research and its implications as a plenary speaker at the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD) International Conference (2021), panelist at the Stanford University CASBS' Social Science for a World In Crisis Series (2021), invited speaker at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine (NASEM) Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education Public Summit (2019, 2020), and invited speaker at University of Toronto (2019, 2021) and University of Michigan (2019, 2021), among others. Her work has had a demonstrative public impact, with over 638,000 readers of her article (2019) detailing CBTT and sexual abuse in the Black community in The Conversation.
