Meet Dr. Dill

“I come from an Oldsmobile hooptie creepin down the 110 Freeway runnin over the closed cover of an Organic Chemistry book”

Dr. LeConté J. Dill was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California, the granddaughter of sojourners of the 2nd Wave of the Great Migration. She remains curious about sojourning, migrations, and landing and launching places and spaces. “Le Conte” literally means “The Fairy Tale,” and likewise, LeConté listens to, documents, dreams, and creates stories of reimagining. She is a scholar, educator, and a poet in and out of classroom and community spaces.

LeConté earned her B.A. in Sociology from Spelman College and her Master of Public Health degree in Community Health Sciences, with a focus in Child and Family Health, from the University of California Los Angeles. She grew skills and partnerships working in the non-profit and public sector on  issues related to public health program planning and evaluation, health education, and juvenile justice advocacy. LeConté went on to earn a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of California Berkeley and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Health Policy in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine.

LeConté is an Associate Professor of Black Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities Studies in the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. Additionally, she is a Research Associate at the African Centre for Migration & Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously, she served on the faculty at several schools and programs of public health across the United States. Guided by Black Feminist epistemologies and using qualitative and arts-based research methods, LeConté has a commitment toward transdisciplinary, community-accountable scholarship. Her work focuses on safety, resilience, healing, and wellness, particularly for urban Black girls and other youth of color.

LeConté has been writing creatively since elementary school, published her poetry and fiction in her high school and college literary magazines, and minored in Creative Writing in college. She is a 5-time participant in the VONA/Voices Writing Workshops and a 3-time participant in the Cave Canem Community Workshops. LeConté was a 2016 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop Fellow. In 2019, she was an Emerging Woman Poet Honorable Mention with Small Orange Press, and in 2021, she was a Runner Up/Honorable Mention for the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize. LeConté also teaches and facilitates poetry classes and workshops.

LeConté’s scholarly and creative works have been published in a diverse array of spaces, such as the Du Bois Review, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Adolescent Research, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Poetry Magazine, The Feminist Wire, and Mom Egg Review.