OUR MISSION
THE BGD RESEARCH GROUP CENTERS BLACK GIRLS & WOMEN.
The Black Girl Development Research Group centers Black girls in research that promotes healthy development, empowerment, protection, and thriving.
We serve Black girls, women, men, families, and communities. Our research addresses the social, cultural, familial, and structural factors that shape Black girls’ and women’s development, with the goal of advancing justice, opportunity, and holistic well-being.
OUR PURPOSE
THE CHANGE WE WANT TO CREATE
The Black Girl Development (BGD) Research Group seeks to create meaningful and lasting change in the lives of Black girls, their families, and their communities. Through rigorous research, community partnerships, and knowledge dissemination, our work aims to:
01
Elevate the voices and experiences of Black girls in research, education, healthcare, and public discourse. By doing so we aim to advance scientific understanding of the factors that shape Black girls’ and women's developmental, social, emotional, and sexual health outcomes.
02
Develop and strengthen interventions that protect Black girls from harm, including adultification, discrimination, violence, and sexual risk.
03
Identify and amplify protective factors, such as supportive family relationships, positive connections with Black men and fathers, cultural affirmation, mentorship, and community support.
04
Promote healthy identity development, well-being, and empowerment across childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood.
05
Train the next generation of scholars, practitioners, and advocates committed to advancing Black girl development and thriving.
06
Translate research into action by partnering with communities, organizations, and policymakers to create sustainable and measurable change. With special attention to implementation factors in community settings. We aim to inform policies and practices that promote equity and address the unique needs and experiences of Black girls.
THE VISION
OUR ULTIMATE IMPACT IS A WORLD IN WHICH BLACK GIRLS ARE PROTECTED, VALUED, AND EMPOWERED TO THRIVE—WHERE RESEARCH, POLICY, AND PRACTICE REFLECT THEIR STRENGTHS, ADDRESS SYSTEMIC BARRIERS, AND SUPPORT THEIR HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFECOURSE.
WHAT GUIDES YOU
OUR VALUES
1 CENTER BLACK GIRLS & WOMEN
We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
2 COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP
We value authentic collaboration with Black girls, families, schools, and communities to ensure research is culturally grounded, accessible, and impactful.
3 PROTECTION
We work to protect Black girls and women from harm, including adultification, discrimination, violence, and exploitation, while advocating for environments that promote safety, dignity, and well-being. We recognize that Black girls’ protection is contingent upon the health and well-being of their families, communities and systems.
4 EQUITY & JUSTICE
We are committed to challenging systemic inequities and advancing social, racial, gender, and developmental justice that supports Black girls’ and women’s healthy development and opportunity.
5 INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION
We believe meaningful change happens through collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and communities to address the complex realities shaping Black girls’ development.
OUR STORY
GROWING, GLOWING, & GETTING OUR WORK DONE.
The BGD group is a research group designed to support members’ personal, academic, and professional goals. It was developed by Dr. Natasha Crooks, a Black woman, Associate Professor, and research mentor who employs a transformational leadership mentorship style at the University of Illinois Chicago.
As a faculty mentor, Dr. Crooks has extensive experience mentoring graduate students from diverse and underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. An expert in qualitative research, her work centers on protecting Black girls and women’s sexual and reproductive health. BGD is an all-Black women’s research group consisting of student members and one faculty mentor.
The group started from Black women seeking mentorship from Dr. Crooks. She began the group in 2021, recognizing the need to create a space for Black women interested in doing work addressing health disparities among Black girls and women — to mentor, to build community, and to support one another.
We developed the motto “Growing, Glowing, and Getting Our Work Done,” supporting our mission to grow as researchers, glow in leadership opportunities, and get our work done.
Why is it important? To mentor and create a space for Black women and women of color interested in doing work addressing health disparities among Black girls and women to support one another.
This citation expands upon the development of our research group:
Debra, A., Sosina, W., Coleman, D., Atuegbu, C., Sefah, A., Okafor, A., Sissoko, G., Sanker-Panchal, K., Yates, L., Omuero, R., Odeniyi, F., Reskallah, J., & Crooks, N. (2026). Glowing, growing, and getting our work done: Strategies to mentor Black and African American female graduate students in the health sciences. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
MEET THE FOUNDER
NATASHA CROOKS, PhD, RN
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR · DIRECTOR, BGD RESEARCH GROUP
Dr. Natasha Crooks earned her BSN and PhD in Nursing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She completed her postdoctoral training at Emory University and taught at Morehouse University in Atlanta, GA. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing and an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science in the Department of Medicine.
Her community-engaged research program focuses on protecting Black girls and women’s sexual and reproductive health. She developed the Becoming a Sexual Black Woman framework, describing sociocultural conditions — such as stereotype messaging and lack of protection — that influence Black girls’ sexual development. She also developed IMAGE (IMARA for Black Men and Girls Empowerment), a family-based program for Black girls and their male caregivers. She co-created PrEping for Black love (P4BL), a group care intervention for Black women that centers Black love, sisterhood, and peer support to empower healthy sexual decision-making and PrEP uptake. Her other projects focus on PrEP for HIV prevention and improving Black maternal health outcomes.
She has extensive expertise in advanced qualitative methods, intervention development, and community engagement, particularly among marginalized and underrepresented groups, with seven years of experience mentoring undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and junior faculty across medicine, psychology, nursing, and public health.
She developed the BGD research group because she recognized the importance of creating intentionally safe spaces and research teams for underrepresented students — using a culturally sensitive transformational leadership framework and an intersectional lens to foster an inclusive research environment that promotes the success of Black women and women of color.
FOCUS AREAS
→ Black girls’ and women’s sexual & reproductive health
→ Advanced qualitative methods & intervention development
→ Community engagement with underrepresented groups
→ PrEp for HIV prevention & Black maternal health
SIGNATURE CONTRIBUTIONS
Becoming a Sexual Black Women— a framework describing sociocultural conditions shaping Black girls’ sexual development.
IMAGE—a family-based sexual and reproductive health program for Black girls and their male caregivers in Chicago.
