Giovanni N. Dortch is an activist scholar based in Memphis, Tennessee. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology, and has taught Gender Studies and Women’s Studies at the University of Memphis and Rhodes College.

     She earned a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies at Texas Woman's University centering her studies on Womanist/Feminist Pedagogies and Transformative Education. She holds a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies/ Women’s Studies with a focus on Global Women of Color from the University of Memphis, as well as undergraduate degrees in Political Science and International Relations with a focus on Africa and the Middle East.

​ Ms. Dortch has completed studies internationally, studying in West Africa at the University of Ghana- Legon Campus. Most recently, she participated in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Policy Scholars Institute at Meharry Medical College and completed a specialization in Epidemiology through the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

​Ms. Dortch combines her work as a sociologist, women's studies scholar and political scientist in the field of Health Policy and the Sociology of Health/Social Public Health. In this capacity, she has been a Reproductive Justice activist and HIV prevention advocate for nearly a decade.

She has written policy plans,  lobbied Congress and Tennessee state representatives to pass legislation and policies protecting women's health, is a certified HIV counselor and tester in the State of Tennessee, and facilitates trauma informed trainings to address health disparities among black women.  She has also created culturally competent health literature to facilitate HIV prevention.

​Ms. Dortch is available for speaking, consulting and training on issues of diversity, equity, gender & sexuality and health policy and advocacy.

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