Ruby Mendenhall is the Kathryn Lee Baynes Dallenbauch LAS Professor in Sociology and African American Studies. She is an Associate Dean for Diversity and Democratization of Health Innovation at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also has appointments in Urban and Regional Planning, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Social Work. She is affiliated with the Carle Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. She examines how living in racially segregated neighborhoods with high levels of violence affects Black mothers’ mental and physical health using surveys, interviews, crime statistics, police records, data from 911 calls, art, wearable sensors and genomic analysis. One of her studies involved working with citizen/community scientists to collect, analyze, and publicly disseminate the findings. The mothers wore health sensors for 30 days and used GPS on their phones to spatially track their exposure to gun violence. The participants and researchers jointly created a public research exhibit that displayed the findings using photographs, art, virtual reality, light installations, etc.