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"Why stand apart, when we can stand together?"
- DR. ALEXIS JEMAL

Dr. Alexis Jemal, LCSW, LCADC, MA, JD, PhD — academic, artist, and activist — is an Associate Professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. A Black feminist, psycho-socio-cultural scholar-artivist, and social entrepreneur, Dr. Jemal is a critical-radical social worker whose work focuses on racial justice, radical healing, and liberation.

AJEM (Alexis Jemal Educational Methodology) is the for-profit branch of Dr. Jemal’s work, focused on designing transformative, justice-centered programs. Rooted in critical consciousness and healing, AJEM supports initiatives like MATI and Sawubona Healing Circles by developing educational tools that bridge theory and practice, empowering communities through creative, liberatory approaches.

Dr. Jemal is a leading founder of the Briar Patch Collaboratory (BPC), a nonprofit think tank and action hub that bridges academia and community through healing-centered, arts-based research, education, and transformative praxis. Through her original framework, Soulcial Work Praxis, She fuses lived experience with academic theory to challenge systems of oppression and cultivate spaces for justice, wellness, empowerment, and liberation.

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Academic Profile

Dr. Alexis Jemal, JD, LCSW, PhD

Associate Professor, CUNY
Silberman School of Social Work & PhD Program in Social Welfare

Previous Appointments:
Assistant Professor, Silberman School of Social Work (2016–2022)
Assistant Professor, Social Welfare PhD Program (2018–2022)

aj1423@hunter.cuny.edu  |  (212) 396-7526  |  Office 442

Critical Social Work • Health & Justice Interventions • Critical Consciousness • Systemic Inequity • Participatory Research

Training & Certifications

  • Dialogue Circle on Race Facilitator Training (January 2023)
  • The Indigenous Tools for Living, Love & Kindness Wellness Services (Nov–Dec 2022)
    8-session integrative therapy workshop on using indigenous practices to address complex trauma without burnout.
  • CHER Institute, Center for Health Equity Research (May–June 2022)
    Acknowledging, Addressing, and Intervening in Harms Related to Racism and Racial Discrimination

Education

  • MFA (anticipated), Creative Writing, Mississippi University for Women (2025)
  • MA, Applied Theatre, CUNY School of Professional Studies (2021)
  • PhD, Social Work, Rutgers University (2016)
  • MSW, Clinical/Forensic Social Work, Rutgers University (2011)
  • JD, Rutgers School of Law – Newark (2007)
  • BA, Sociology (Summa Cum Laude), Rutgers University (2003)

Honors & Awards

  • Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program (2024)
  • Andrew W. Mellon TLH Faculty Fellow, CUNY (June 2022)
  • Fellow, Experiential Learning, CUNY Innovative Teaching Academy (CITA)
  • Fellow, CUNY Mellon Faculty Diversity Career Enhancement Initiative (Fall 2017)
  • Faculty Research Fellowship, Nominated by Provost (Spring 2017)
  • Sarah Mazelis Best Paper of the Year Award
  • PSC-CUNY Research Awards (2017–2023)
  • Presidential Travel Awards (2017–2023)
  • Anti-racist Mental Health Curriculum Review — University of Illinois (2023)