BIO

Loren Henderson (PhD, University of Illinois) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research interests include diversity issues, stratification and inequality, health disparities, and race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Dr. Henderson is coauthor of Diversity in Organizations: A Critical Examination. That book offers an examination of organizational characteristics, recruitment and retention factors, and employment practices and job benefits that are associated with the racial and gender composition of organizations in the U.S. It demonstrates that there are tangible recruitment and retention strategies that companies can employ (or avoid) that make a difference. In addition, she has published several research articles on diversity, including “From Affirmative Action to Diversity: Toward a Critical Diversity Perspective” in Critical Sociology, “Does Critical Diversity Pay in Higher Education?: Race, Gender, and Departmental Rankings in Research Universities” in Politics, Groups, and Identities: Journal of the Western Political Science Association the Journal of African American Studies, and “Diversity in Illinois: Changing Meanings, Demographic Trends, and Policy Preferences” in The Illinois Report.

Dr. Henderson has also used quantitative and mixed methods to conduct research on racial and gender disparities in health outcomes. She has national data to study infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDs and chlamydia. She is the author of “Racial Isolation and Chlamydia Rates in U.S. Counties” (Race and Social Problems). In addition, she is the lead author of “Involving Urban Single Low-Income African American Mothers in Genomic Research: Giving Voice to How Place Matters in Health Disparities and Prevention Strategies” (Issues in Race and Society: An Interdisciplinary Global Journal). She is also collaborating on research that examines the role of spousal violence and husband characteristics in the incidence of HIV among women in southern Africa. In another research project, she is using national data to carry out an intersectional analysis of sexual network factors that are related to racial and gender disparities in STDs in the U.S. She is also working on research that will help identify the sources and consequences of health disparities.

In 2016, Dr. Henderson was selected as a Hrabowski Innovation Fund winner and was named UMBC Innovation Fellow.

She previously worked as a research analyst in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois in Chicago where she conducted quantitative research for a federally funded study to prevent HIV/AIDS among juvenile offenders. She has also served as Project Manager of the “Depression in Low-Income, Single African American Mothers in the Hidden America” Research Project in Chicago. In addition, she was a Computational Genomics Fellow at the University of Illinois.

In addition, she has published research that looks at various forms of social inequality and oppression that revolve around issues of difference. She is the lead author of “Credit Where Credit is Due? Race, Gender, and the Credit Scores of Business Startups” (The Review of Black Political Economy). She is coauthor of “Wealth Inequality in Black and White: Cultural and Structural Sources of the Racial Wealth Gap” (Race and Social Problems); and “Interracial Families in Post-Civil Rights America” (Families as They Really Are). She is the author of “Tying the Knot across the Color Line: An Intersectional Analysis of Getting Married Interracially” (Issues in Race and Society: An Interdisciplinary Global Journal).