Noelle M. St. Vil is an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, a position she has held since 2015. St. Vil is a graduate of Howard University, where she studied under Tricia Bent-Goodley, an expert in the field of intimate partner violence in the Black community. She completed her postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University, under the mentorship of Dr. Jacqueline Campbell, creator of the Danger Assessment. Dr. St. Vil’s research focuses on supporting positive Black intimate relationships, with the aim of strengthening Black families and communities. Her research challenges scholarship that ignores systemic oppression, pathologizes, victim-blames, and stereotypes Black intimate relationships.
Dr. St. Vil’s work highlights the disproportionate risks and dangers faced in Black intimate relationships, especially by Black women, but looks at these risks and dangers through a lens that is critical of historical and structural racism and affirming of Black resilience. Her scholarship concentrates on two dimensions of Black intimate relationships: 1) Violence Against Women; and 2) sexual behavior, health, and well-being. Currently, she is a co-investigator on two studies aiming to develop culturally specific sexual assault intervention preventions for Black college women. Her long-term goal is to create prevention interventions that strengthen Black male-female relationships.
