2025 Stockton MSW Program Social Justice in Communities Speaker Series

Join us as we learn from Dr. Patricia Reid-Merritt, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Africana Studies and Social Work.

Dr. Patricia Reid-Merritt – author, educator, scholar, community activist and performing artist – will educate attendees on tracing African American organizing and advocacy in Atlantic City, and will share a collective focus on passing the torch to the future generation of social advocates.

Dr. Patricia Reid-Merritt is the Distinguished Professor Emerita of Africana Studies and Social Work at Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey. Dr. Reid-Merritt received the Doctor of Social Work in Race, Law and Social Policy (University of Pennsylvania); the Master of Social Work (Temple University); and, the Bachelor of Arts in psychology and social science (Cabrini College). She served as Coordinator of the Africana Studies Program (2003 - 2016), spearheaded the University’s annual Fannie Lou Hamer Human and Civil Rights Symposiums ((2004 - 2015), and chaired the National Fannie Lou Hamer Statue Committee (2012).

Dr. Reid-Merritt is also the Founder and Artistic/Executive Director of Afro-One Dance, Drama and Drum Theatre, Inc., a community-based cultural and performing arts organization currently celebrating its 47th year of operation. Afro-One has been described as "the cultural magnet" for African American youth, families and the community in southern New Jersey.

Dr. Reid-Merritt has served as an educational and training consultant for inclusion, diversity, cultural sensitivity, race, racism and anti-racism to colleges, universities, local school districts, businesses, state and city governments.

Dr. Reid-Merritt is the author of numerous publications, including: the national Blackboard best-seller, Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top; Sister Wisdom: Seven Pathways to a Satisfying Life for Soulful Black Women; Righteous Self-Determination: The Black Social Work Movement in America; Race in America: How a Pseudo-Scientific Concept Shaped Human Interaction; Tarnished Legacy: A Reluctant Memoir; A State by State History of Race and Racism in the United States; and, Race and Identity in Hispanic America: The White, the Black and the Brown.

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