Dr. Sharrelle Barber is a social epidemiologist and scholar-activist whose research
focuses on the intersection of “place, race, and health” and examines the role of
structural racism in shaping health and racial/ethnic health inequities among Blacks in
the Southern United States and Brazil. Deeply rooted in the rich legacy of “Black
Women Radicals” from the South, the legacy of activism of her beloved alma mater,
Bennett College, and experiences that have taken her to cities across the United States
and Brazil, Dr. Barber seeks to use empirical research and scholarship to make the
invisible visible and mobilize data for action.
Dr. Barber has authored peer-reviewed articles in leading journals including the
American Journal of Public Health and Social Science and Medicine. Over the past 5
years, she has served as Principal Investigator on several externally-funded research
projects and has secured over $2.5 million dollars in funding from the National Institutes
of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the American Heart Association.
Dr. Barber has also lectured and taught nationally and internationally about the impact
of racism on health inequities. In the Fall of 2020, she was appointed by the Dean of the
Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health to serve as chair of the planning committee
charged to establish a Center on Racism and Population Health Equity which will launch
in Fall 2021 with a generous $9 Million gift from Dana and David Dornsife.
During the COVD-19 pandemic, Dr. Barber has been funded to examine the impact of
racism and segregation on racial inequities in COVID-19 in Philadelphia and is a part of
a research collaboration between the Drexel Urban Health Collaborative and the Big
Cities Health Coalition examining COVID-19 inequities in the 30 largest cities in the US.
Dr. Barber has also provided expert commentary on the disproportionate impact of
COVID-19 in Black communities for local, national, and international media outlets
including the NY Times, Smithsonian Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, NPR and Al
Jazeera. In March, she convened a group of public health experts from Harvard (FXB
Center for Health and Human Rights), UCLA (Center for the Study of Racism, Social
Justice, and Health), and other academic institutions across the country to serve as an
advisory committee to the Poor People’s Campaign, providing justice-centered public
health expertise for the movement as it engaged in collective action and advocacy.
In 2018, Dr. Barber partnered with Free Southern Media and a team of phenomenal
Black Women to co-direct and co-produce a “living” documentary film project entitled, I,
A Black Woman Resist, which documents her experience meeting slain Afro-Brazilian
activist and politician, Marielle Franco on March 14, 2018. Since the first screening of
the film in October 2018, she and her team have traveled across the country to over 20
campuses and community organizations to “bear witness” to Marielle’s life and legacy
and to raise awareness, build consciousness, and facilitate dialogue around the
necessity of transnational solidarity in the fight against racism and the global struggle for
Black Lives.

Dr. Barber has advanced degrees from the UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard University and
is currently a faculty member in Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the
Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health.

Carlos Ivan Calaff Sr., B.S., is a lifelong Bronx native and proud father of two sons. He is a graduate of Mercy College, a Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison alum, and a Justice-in-Education Scholar at Columbia University. Ivan is currently a Research Analyst at the Center for Justice and a as a Reintegration Specialist for the Justice in Education Scholars Program at Columbia University where he supports the development of educational programming—including college courses for adults involved with the justice system; speaks to diverse audiences about the effects of the criminal justice system on individuals and communities and ways in which the system can be transformed; and is helping develop the Center’s research agenda on the relationship between education, identity and democratic engagement for justice-involved individuals. Ivan is also a musician and serves on the Advisory Committee for Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections Program. Ivan’s favorite music is country, Jazz, house, Salsa and old school hip hop. His favorite movie is The Book of Henry and his favorite pastimes are making music, coin and card magic, reading and playing chess. Ivan’s greatest fear is living a life without purpose.