Dr. Jaleah Rutledge (she/her) is a T32 postdoctoral fellow in the Yale AIDS Prevention Training Program at the Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. Her program of research focuses on racial health disparities, health equity, and health promotion among marginalized populations. More specifically, she is interested in understanding and utilizing strengths-based approaches for the promotion and protection of Black women’s sexual and reproductive health. Her long-term goal is to maintain a program of research that enhances understandings of health inequities and informs interventions that center the resilience, agency, and lived experiences of Black women and girls. Dr. Rutledge obtained her PhD in Ecological-Community Psychology from Michigan State University.

She is also a proud alumna of Tuskegee University, a historically black college and university (HBCU) where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. Her dissertation, which explored how Black women navigate and heal after a sexually transmitted infection diagnosis through narrative inquiry and Black feminist theory, was awarded the Society for Community Research and Action Dissertation of the Year Award for the best dissertation on a topic in the field of community psychology. Her leadership and scholarly contributions have also been recognized with the Bob & Betts Caldwell Land-Grant Values Award and the Graduate Student Leader of the Year Award. Recently, Dr. Rutledge, Dr. Opara, and faculty at Tuskegee University were awarded a grant through Yale’s ASCEND (Alliance for Scholarship, Collaboration, Engagement, Networking and Development) initiative, which supports innovative Yale–HBCU research partnerships.

This collaboration is especially meaningful as an HBCU alumna and Birmingham, Alabama native, allowing her to honor her roots while advancing her commitment to equity and community-based scholarship. Outside of her professional pursuits, she enjoys reading, cooking and baking, and traveling.