As a researcher, health educator, and digital cultural producer, Dr. Shawna Shipley-Gates (pronouns: she/her) empowers Black women and femmes to unapologetically take control of their own erotic lives. With more than ten years of HIV prevention and sexual health expertise, she has shared her purpose on both local and national platforms addressing the importance of current, culturally significant, age-appropriate, and sex-positive sexual health education to many audiences but especially for Black girls, women, and femmes. Her work explores digital erotic cultural production as a form of resistance against sexual oppression to address sexual health disparities among Black women. Dr. Shipley-Gates utilizes digital mediums to create safe yet sex-positive spaces that present Black women and femmes as diverse, provocative, and healthy subjects. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College; Master of Public Health degree from New York University; and doctoral degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Kansas. Dr. Shipley-Gates is currently a Lyman T. Johnson Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Kentucky. ​​