My Story
The Official Bio
Tracie Q. Gilbert, PhD (she/her/anything respectful) is an educator, writer, researcher and consultant who uses conversation to pursue sexual healing for Black people, and racial justice in sex ed spaces. Using lectures, interactive workshops, conversation series and other projects, Dr. Gilbert works to help communities unpack the mental, historical, and cultural barriers that keep us from having honest, productive conversations about sex and sexuality.
Dr. Gilbert has nearly 25 years’ experience teaching urban youth, young adults, and their advocates. She received her Masters of Science in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and her doctorate from the Center for Human Sexuality Studies at Widener University. Her dissertation on the lived experience of sexuality among African Americans won the CHSS 2019 Distinguished Dissertation Prize.
Dr. Gilbert has consulted with nearly a dozen different organizations including Planned Parenthood, Fact Forward, Christiana Healthcare Systems, Evoluer House, the Innovative Learning Institute, and the Center for Sex Education. Her voice and perspectives can be found most often on her podcast, The Sex Ed of Blackfolk w./ Dr. G., airing on all major platforms.
A Message From Dr. G
When I think of how I personify myself I typically use the moniker uBg, or “Urban Black Girl”. I’m a Midwest native (“Milwaukee, WI Baby!” *in my Bootsy Collins voice*) who came of age in the 90’s, at the height of both the AIDS and crack epidemics. I grew up at a time when young people like me were considered “fast-tailed” or “at risk”, by virtue of the zip codes we lived in, the music we listened to, the ways our bodies developed, and what was overall assumed about our futures. Most often, the projections I and my peers experienced were based on inaccurate historical interpretation, and came from people who never took the time to speak to us, whether they were from the community or not. It is this frame of reference that informs my work as a sexuality educator and consultant, giving me a particular heart for urban teens, particularly those from Black and Brown communities, who often still face the same kind of underrepresentation and projection that I did.
Though the sex part is newer, my journey as an Educator began nearly 25 years ago.
I came to sex through race both personally and professionally while studying research on Black adolescents at the University of Pennsylvania; it was there where I saw just how much of it was tainted by bias and willful ignorance. From there I pursued and secured my doctorate from Widener University, capping off the newest chapter in what has now been nearly 25 years of work in support of Black and Brown young people and the advocates who serve them. During this time I’ve received several awards, including from Widener University, the American Association for Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and the Women for Social Innovation. What has been most rewarding, however, are the numbers of young people who report having been positively impacted by the service I provide, as well as the adults who report feeling more equipped and inspired to do right by their young people as a result of my influence. Those are the metrics that will always be most important to me.
The Book
Black & Sexy: A Framework of Black Sexuality in the 21st Century
In November of 2021, Dr. G released her first major research project in book form, Black & Sexy: A Framework of Racialized Sexuality. This book sheds light on the relationship between sociohistorical conceptualizations of race and their contemporary manifestations in the experience and ideation of sexuality among African American populations in the present day.
Check out the podcast
T.S.O.B. with Dr. G is a weekly podcast that offers intellectual table talk about race and sexuality. Join educator and researcher Dr. Tracie Q. Gilbert as she chats with amazing sex educators, counselors, and therapists, applying a professional Black lens to sexiness, health and healing in the new millennium.