Jameta Nicole Barlow, PhD, MPH, RYT® 200, a Charlottesville, Virginia native, is a community health psychologist and an assistant professor of writing in The George Washington University's University Writing Program and Women's Leadership Program. She holds secondary appointments in the Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Milken Institute of Public Health. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Global Women's Institute, Africana Studies Program and the Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Dr. Barlow is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program. Her research utilizes decolonizing methodologies to disrupt cardiometabolic syndrome and structural policies adversely affecting Black girls' and women's health,  intergenerational trauma and perinatal mental health. Dr. Barlow uses Black Feminisms and Womanism to theorize, implement and evaluate methodologies, interventions and policies for Black girls and women. With professional experiences in federal government, national nonprofits and academia, she has spent 24 years in transdisciplinary collaborations with physicians, public health practitioners, researchers, policy administrators, activists, political appointees, and community members in diverse settings throughout the world. Dr. Barlow holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English from Spelman College, a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Maternal and Child Health from The George Washington University and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Psychology from North Carolina State University.

 

Certified as an Emotional Emancipation Circle Facilitator and vinyasa and restorative yoga instructor, Dr. Barlow is also trained as a doula, childbirth educator, prenatal yoga and meditation instructor; and, a 2015 AcademyHealth/Aetna Foundation Scholar-in-Residence Fellow, 2016 RAND Faculty Leaders Fellow in Policy Research and Analysis and 2020-2021 GW Humanities Center Fellow. She has lectured on her research throughout the world at institutions such as the University of Virginia, Harvard University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. Dr. Barlow has served in a variety of leadership roles within the American Psychological Association, including the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students and as the Immediate Past Chair for the American Psychological Association's Committee on Women in Psychology. Additionally, she is the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at the Black Women's Health Imperative and Strategic Communications and Implementation Advisor for the Council on Black Health. A  2022 Public Voices Fellowship at AcademyHealth, in partnership with The OpEd Project, Dr. Barlow's writings on Black girls' and women's health, intersectionality, health equity, healing and restorative health practices in psychology and public health research appear in various publications and she offers community-based and industry focused workshops, retreats and trainings on these topics. Dr. Barlow has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, Shape, Insider, NBC News, OZY, mashable, the Skimm, Medical News Today, NPR, Psych Central and Healthline.  She presents her work in various forms of media. Her digital storytelling work, the Saving Our Sisters Project (www.savingoursistersproject.com), is focused on Black women's mental health and well-being, employing writing and the personal narrative. Her book, writing Blackgirls' and women's health and science: implications for policy and practice, was released December 2023.

 

She believes her evidence-based curriculum, "writehealingTM," is an effective approach towards uncovering trauma and healing. Dr. Barlow recently completed yoga nidra training and considers herself a folk plant person. She is deeply committed to her practice of sleep and rest yoga.