LEAP Session: Mindfulness and Health in Black Family Settings

Dr. Kesha Morant-Williams, Author, Associate Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences

This presentation explores mindfulness practices relevant within African American families but centers around Black women in family settings because they are often the health decision makers, and they provide instrumental and other social support not only to their immediate household but also to their broader extended family.

Dr. Kesha Morant Williams is an Associate Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences. She teaches courses including research methods, interpersonal, health and African American communication. Her research interest focuses on interpersonal communication, health communication and popular media examined through a cultural lens. She is a featured scholar in the documentary Beautiful Me. Her relationship-centered teaching and research have been recognized throughout the university, in the community, and nationally. In 2018, she was awarded the Rex Crawley Service Award at the National Communication Association Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah and delivered a TEDx Talk entitled, “Wednesdays With Willie.” Additionally, she is a 2019 Lancaster YWCA Woman of Achievement. Her research has been published in peer review journals including Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Medical Humanities, Journal of Black Studies, Howard Journal of Communications, Journal of Media and Religion, Journal of Communication & Religion, Sexuality and Culture, Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric and the books Inter/Cultural Communication: Representation and construction of culture in everyday interaction and Race, Gender & Identity. She is the editor of Reifying Women’s Experiences with Invisible Illness and the book Contemporary Christian Culture: Messages, Missions & Dilemmas.