Amber Reid F’23 was motivated to pursue her PhD in the Humanities by the silencing of Black voices within the healthcare system and beyond. In 2023, after earning her degree at Clark Atlanta University, Reid applied for and was awarded an ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship.
Today, Reid is using her humanities PhD every day as a research analyst at the Afiya Center, the only reproductive justice organization in North Texas founded and directed by Black womxn. There, she has witnessed firsthand the hardships that marginalized communities, including her own, face when research and policy are not translated into practice.
Her role at the center was made possible by the ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship, a program funded by the Mellon Foundation that places recent humanities and interpretive social science PhD graduates with nonprofit social justice organizations.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully articulate how insightful, uplifting, healing, and beneficial this experience has been, but I am grateful. I am so very glad that the ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship is a part of my journey.
Left: Amber Reid F’23 presents on Reproductive Justice for individuals living with HIV.
Reid’s knowledge and mastery of cultural theory, feminist studies, and Africana studies allows her to center her research in storytelling that elevates the voices of Black womxn and girls. “The space we create is rooted in radical self-love to intentionally provide healing and nurturing for Black womxn when other spaces do not,” explained Reid.
Part of her work to increase awareness of issues facing Black womxn and girls involves Reid collecting data, analyzing it, and publishing reports. She collaboratively wrote the Afiya Center’s 2024 State of Black Womxn in Texas Report, which includes articles that examine the condemning, criminalization, and silencing of Black womxn beginning in girlhood.
As a Leading Edge Fellow, Reid’s work has led her to strategic planning with Dr. Loretta Ross, a “Mother” of the reproductive justice movement whose efforts are co-led by Dr. Jallicia Jolly of the BREHA Collective at Amherst College. She has also traveled as far as Lima, Peru to gain a better understanding of discrimination in healthcare, specifically when it comes to HIV research and care.
“I have had opportunities I would have never imagined because of my participation in this program,” stated Reid. “My professional network has grown tremendously, meeting other hardworking individuals in both the HIV and reproductive justice movements.”
Reid’s network grew through the virtual mentoring component and career development programming provided by ACLS, including a recent seminar in Chicago.
Current Leading Edge Fellows are paired with ACLS alumni mentors, who have navigated the transition from PhD to the nonprofit sector through either the ACLS Leading Edge or Public Fellows programs. For Reid, her mentor and fellow mentees normalized challenges and dispelled concerns surrounding imposter syndrome and future planning.
Likewise, the career development seminar allowed Reid to evaluate her personal and professional goals and how they align. She conversed with fellows and a number of ACLS alumni with a range of skills and backgrounds and concluded that she did not have to pursue just one area of interest.
Reid’s participation in the fellowship stemmed from her own experiences as a counselor and her research into the unique challenges that Black womxn face within a larger historical context. The Afiya Center’s mission to respond to those challenges felt like a call to action for Reid, and she remains hopeful that others like her, who have a passion for this work, will answer their call as well.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully articulate how insightful, uplifting, healing, and beneficial this experience has been, but I am grateful,” stated Reid. “I am so very glad that the ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship is a part of my journey.”
The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship program aims to demonstrate the potential of humanistic knowledge and methods to solve problems, build capacity, and advance social justice and equity. The fellowships support recent PhDs in the humanities and interpretive social sciences as they work with social justice organizations in communities across the United States.
