Maretta Darnell McDonald

Maretta DarnelI McDonald is an affiliate faculty member in the Sociology Department at Virginia Tech. Dr. McDonald 2022-2024 University o was a Wisconsin-Madison, Institute of Research on Poverty National Poverty Fellow, 2021-2022 American Sociological Association (ASA) Minority Fellow, and a member of the inaugural 2021-2022 cohort of ASA/NSF Doctoral Dissertation Researcke Improvement Grant awardees. Dr. McDonald earned her PhD in Sociology a Louisiana State University in 2022. Her current research interests are racia inequality, criminology/criminal justice, family, gender, spatial inequality, anct public policy. Her primary research examines the association of child support policies and practices with macrolevel spatial and racial inequality, which brings al these areas into conversation with each other. She has published multiple bool: chapters and public scholarship pieces. As a professed Hip Hop and sneakerhead, Dr McDonald loves to listen to music (especially live), buy new colorways of Nike Air Max 95s, spend time dancing with her biological and chosen family, and go to Black cultural events and spaces.