Chanequa Walker-Barnes
Chanequa Walker-Barnes is an American theologian and psychologist. Her research as a clinical psychologist has focused on African American health disparities, and as a womanist theologian she has written about the myth of the "StrongBlackWoman" and the need for the voices of women of color. She has written two books, Too Heavy a Yoke and I Bring the Voices of My People. Early life and education Walker-Barnes was born and raised in Atlanta. She has spoken about growing up in a "racially conscious family in the Deep South". Her grandfathers were sharecroppers, and her paternal grandfather and great-grandfather ran away from the White farmer who "owned" them in the early 1900s. Her parents, Wali Sharif and Laquitta Walker, met when they were in one of the first groups of Black students to integrate their school in Atlanta. She lived with her mother and brother in the home of Hosea Williams with his daughter, Elisabeth Omilami, her mother's best friend. Walker-Barnes has a BA in psychology from Emory University and a MS and PhD in Clinical Child and Family Psychology from the University of Miami. She later earned a Masters of Divinity from Duke Divinity School, where she was mentored by