Staff and Advisory Committee

James Lawson Institute Staff Members

Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Ph.D., Executive Director

Dr. Phillis Isabella Sheppard is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion, the first African American woman to be promoted to full professor at the Divinity School and the inaugural Director of the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements at Vanderbilt University. Previously she served as Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the Divinity School.

Sheppard is the author of two books. Her first, “Self, Culture and Others in Womanist Practical Theology” considers Black women’s lived experience through a womanist informed psychoanalytic perspective and cultural analysis. Her second book, “Tilling Sacred Ground: Interiority, Black Women, and Religious Experience” examines religious experience and its intertwinement with interiority in social spaces and processes. Her work consistently elucidates the complex negotiation of race, gender, and sexuality in private and public spaces. Her third book, in process, “Poking and Prodding with a Purpose: Womanist Ethnography in Theory and Method” centers Black women’s narratives in the elaboration of womanist ethnographic approaches.

Alyssa R. Adams, Program Coordinator

Alyssa is the Program Coordinator of The James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements. Her role with the institute focuses on program development and bringing awareness to the Institute’s efforts. Alyssa is from Detroit, MI. and has lived in Nashville for 10 years. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Women and Gendered Studies from Grand Valley State University and a Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership from Trevecca Nazarene University. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Alyssa served as a Program Director for an extended learning program with a local middle school. Her passion is to work alongside others for intergenerational development and social change.