Marquitta Dorsey is an Assistant Professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work. She received her PhD in Social Welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Master’s of Social Work from the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, a Master’s of Business Administration from American Intercontinental University, and a Bachelor of Science degree from East Tennessee State University.

Across 20 years of community practice, Dr. Dorsey has served girls and their families through a range of after-school programs, youth gang intervention and prevention programs, juvenile justice interventions, child welfare systems initiatives, and homelessness projects.

Currently, Dr. Dorsey’s research aims to understand contemporary factors related to the sexual and reproductive health of Black adolescent females who live and navigate economically disadvantaged communities. This research is driven by the invisibility of Black female voices and circumstances, alongside the lack of empirical knowledge about how contextual experiences (ie, reduced access to contraception and familial assets) matter to specific sexual health outcomes and decisions made by Black adolescent females.

Through support from the Society of Family Planning Research Fund, Dr. Dorsey will design a mixed methodological study that explores and examines the role of familial assets, specifically paternal engagement, that promotes the sexual health and decision-making of Black adolescent females who live in poor communities. It is expected that results from this study will provide theoretical and empirical support for father-daughter interventions as a bridge between in a daughter’s sexual health education, and access to abortions and low-cost contraceptives.