Dennis is a doctoral student in Social Work at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. He is studying Black families broadly with a focus on the Black mothers-son relationship.
Prior to coming to the Brown School, Dennis invested nearly two decades working with Black and Latino Boys. In 2014, Dennis began hosting Mothers With Sons Seminars for mothers with teenage sons. These seminars are where Dennis’ interest and curiosity about the mothers-son relationship blossomed. Dennis says that, “Those sessions were the catalyst that led to my desire to provide Mothers with teenage sons with tools and resources to support their parenting journey during a complicated stage of development.”
Dennis graduated with his Masters of Science in Social Work with a concentration in Policy Practice from Columbia University in New York City. He worked as a consultant with the NYC Department of Education, served as an advisor for the alternate sentencing unit at the Queens County Supreme Court Second Chance program, and an advisor/consultant to youth organizations.
Dennis’ desire to be connected to the community is the motivation for his volunteerism in St. Louis. Currently, he volunteers on a Faith-Based Youth Leadership Board, at local youth organization, and will be volunteering on a youth policy-related project with an elected official.
Dennis recently received IRB approval for his ethnographic research study “Mothers with Sons: A Retrospective Study to Understand Black men’s Perception of their Mothers’ Communication During Adolescence.”
Dennis’ other areas of interest include: youth and families, adolescence, k-12 school discipline policy, and juvenile justice.
Email Dennis: dennis.boyd@wustsl.edu