Alana Gunn

Alana J. Gunn has extensive practice and community organizing experiences working with individuals who navigate criminal legal involvement, as well as with the agencies charged with supporting their reintegration process. Her program of research focuses on the ways in which multi-level experiences of stigmatization shape the health and well-being of individuals, particularly women, with intersecting histories of criminal legal involvement and substance use disorders. She is currently engaged in a number of projects, including a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded-research study examining how experiences of hyper-surveillance and policing shape the mental health and wellness of justice-involved families in Chicago as well as a study exploring the ethics-specific implications of interviewing formerly incarcerated women with histories of structural and individual-level trauma. She is also a Faculty Partner with Fordham University's Research Ethnics Training Institute, a NIDA- funded fellowship in which she is an alum of.

Gunn, A. (2022). Testimonies and Healing: Anti-oppressive Research with Black Women and the Implications for  Compassionate Ethical Care. In Faith E. Fletcher et al (ed)., A Critical Moment in Bioethics: Reckoning with Anti- Black Racism through Intergenerational Dialogue. Hastings Center Report 52, 2.

Gunn, A. (2022). Stigma, Surveillance and Wounded Healing: Promoting a Critical Ethics of Care in Research with Formerly Incarcerated Black Women Journal of Community Psychology.

Gunn, A.  (2021). Counterspaces and ethical care in research with Black women with trauma and incarceration histories. Health Education & Behavior, 48(3), 276-284.

Azhar, S,. Gunn, A. (2021). Navigating Intersectional Stigma: Strategies for Coping Among Cisgender Women of Color. Qualitative Health Research, 10497323211025249.

Gunn, A., Hardesty, M., Overstreet, N., Wallace, S. (2021) “Every time I tell my story I learn something new”: Voice and inclusion in research with Black women with histories of addiction and incarceration. Criminology and Criminal Justice. 17488958211005820. 

Bond, K., Gunn, A., Leonard., N. (2021). Using an intersectional framework to understanding the challenges of adopting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among young adult Black women.  Sexuality Research and Social Policy.

Blakey, J. Gunn, A. & Canada, K. (2020) Interprofessional collaboration in criminal justice settings: the case for women  involved with prostitution diversion court programming. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 1-9.

Gunn, A., & Miranda Samuels, G. (2020). Promoting Recovery Identities Among Mothers with Histories of Addiction:Strategies of Family Engagement. Family Process, 59(1) 94-110.

Jemal, A.,  Gunn, A., & Inyang, C. (2019). Transforming responses: Exploring the treatment of substance-using African American women. Journal of ethnicity in substance abuse, 1-29.

Hardesty, M., & Gunn, A. J. (2019). Survival sex and trafficked women: The politics of re-presenting and speaking about others in anti-oppressive qualitative research. Qualitative Social Work, 18(3) 493-513.

Blakey, J. M., & Gunn, A. (2018). The “ickiness factor”: Stigma as a barrier to exiting prostitution. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 57(8), 538-561.

Gunn, A. J., Sacks, T. K., & Jemal, A. (2018). “That’s not me anymore”: Resistance strategies for managing intersectional stigmas for women with substance use and incarceration histories. Qualitative Social Work, 17 (4), 490-508.

Gunn, A. J., Canada, K.E. & Blakey, J. M. (2018). Contemporary Contexts for Exploring Interprofessional Collaboration with Criminal Justice-Involved Populations. In A. Iachini, L. Bronstein, & E. Mellin (Eds.) A Guide for Interprofessional Practice. Alexandria, V.A. Council of Social Work Education Press.

Gunn, A., & Guarino, H. (2016). “Not human, dead already”: Perceptions and experiences of  drug-related stigma among opioid-using young adults from the former Soviet Union living in the US. International Journal of Drug Policy, 38, 63-72.

Bond, K. T., & Gunn, A. J. (2016). Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Pre- Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among Sexually Active Black Women: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, 3(1), 1-24.

Gunn, A. J., & Canada, K. E. (2015). Intra-group stigma: Examining peer relationships among women in recovery for addictions. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 22(3), 281-292.

Harris, S., Nikulina, V., Gelpí-Acosta, C., Newsome, V., Gunn, A., … & Downing. Jr, M. J. (2015). Prescription drug diversion: predictors of illicit acquisition and redistribution in three US Metropolitan areas. AIMS Public Health, 2(4), 762.

Canada, K. E., & Gunn, A. J. (2013). What factors work in mental health court? A consumer perspective. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 52(5), 311-337.

BA Vassar College
AM, MPP, PhD in Social Service Administration, University of Chicago
Behavioral Science Training Postdoctoral Fellowship – New York University Meyers College of Nursing