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About the Team
DR. ERIKA GAULT
Principle Investigator
Erika D. Gault is a museum Center Director & Curator of African American Religious History. In this capacity, she provides a broad range of administrative, collections, and programmatic leadership to the Center. Dr. Gault also serves as an affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Gault is one of the foremost scholars of Digital Black Religion. Dr. Gault's research focuses on the intersection of religious history, technology, and Black life. She has presented and published several articles on hip hop, religion, and digital ethnography. She is the author of Networking the Black Church: Digital Black Christians and Hip Hop (NYU 2022) and the co-edited volume Beyond Christian Hip Hop: A Move Towards Christians and Hip Hop.
Dr. Gault has written for and her work has been covered in several news outlets including ESSENCE Magazine, USA Today, Christianity Today, and Religion News. She is also an award-winning slam poet.
Dr. Gault holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo (2013), a Master of Religion from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (2006), and Bachelor of Art (Poli/Sci and African American Studies) from New York University (2004). She makes her home just outside of the nation's capitol with her husband and daughter.
Dr. Meredith O. Hope
Data Analyst
Dr. Meredith O. Hope loves to tell stories of resilience and thriving. But even more than that, she loves seeing these stories come to life in the narratives and experiences of others.
Dr. Hope serves as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the College of Wooster. She recently served as a Research Fellow at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Prior to then she held the Paul B. Cornely Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture, and Health at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
She completed her PhD degree in Educational Psychology, with an emphasis on adolescent psychosocial development, as well as a Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She obtained her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Hope's work focuses on protective factors that enhance positive social development and health outcomes in minority youth and emerging adults in the United States. Presently, her work explores the contributions of religious communities for Black youth and emerging adult development within high-risk contexts (e.g., racial discrimination and community violence), with specific emphasis on behavioral and mental health outcomes.
Tia Cooke
Graphic Designer
Tia Cooke is the founder of Cooke Classic Designs, a professional branding, graphic design, and publishing agency located in the Triad area of central North Carolina.
For the past 15 years Cooke has specialized in brand management for cultural institutions, small businesses, and religious groups. Her work has been featured as part of Ted Talks, Stellar Awards, The Word Network, among other media outlets.