Ronelle Williams, a Prison Education Project tutor and teaching assistant, has been named on of five 2022-2023 Graduate Fellows at the Washington University Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity. Currently completing a graduate degree in Occupational Therapy, Ronelle’s work focuses on “how oversimplifying Black women’s high obesity rates impacts the erasure of Black girls and women’s experiences with disordered eating, the interaction between impossible European beauty standards and tropes of Black women’s ‘slim-thick’ figures on body image dissatisfaction, the nuances culture and race add to the relationships between body and food, and the association between disordered eating patterns and Black girls and women vulnerability to trauma, stress, and sexual abuse due to compounding marginalized identities.” As a Graduate Fellow, Ronelle “will be invited to share research or creative work in process with their cohort and Center Affiliates in both the Fall and Spring, attend regular Center events, take advantage of special professional development opportunities, and propose future Center programming.”
At the Prison Education Project, Ronelle is a key part of the educational team at both MECC and WERDCC, working as a tutor, a teaching assistant in Psychology, and a member of the student research support team. Ronelle is also a founding member of the St. Louis Reentry Collective.
To support PEP’s education and reentry support work, visit: How You Can Help | Prison Education Project | Washington University in St. Louis