Dr. Gray has worked as a social worker, an adoption counselor, and as an in-home family therapist. Her practice experience focused on family preservation, crisis management, adolescent residential treatment, and adoption family dynamics.
She received her Ph.D. in social work from the University of Georgia in 2009. At UGA, Gray was a faculty field liaison, taught a BSW field seminar and a social work cultural competence and diversity course, and received a university-wide excellence award for Graduate Teaching. Additionally, she served as the student chair for the Ph.D. Student Association for the School of Social Work, and as a student representative for the Doctoral Program Committee, as well as a mentor for several student athletes at UGA.
Gray has been at Winthrop University since 2009 and has taught both in the B.S.W. and M.S.W. programs. Courses she has taught include "Social Welfare as a Social institution," "Social Welfare Policy II," "Human Behavior in the Social Environment," "Working with Multi-Cultural Clients," and "Psychopathology and Empowerment." Currently she serves as an advisor on boards in Charlotte, N.C., and Rock Hill, S.C., to address community poverty and teen health issues.
Utilizing qualitative methods, Gray has completed research in the areas of social welfare history, social change, and social conflict. Her dissertation was a historical study that utilized an approach from the social change theoretical base and included in-depth and extensive examination of documents and artifacts from African American social welfare change agents in Philadelphia, Pa. At present she is working on projects that expand this area of research, as well as those that examine the effectiveness of a community initiative to alleviate poverty by equipping people to move from poverty to self-sufficiency, and the influence of religious values on high-risk behavior in adolescents.
Gray relocated to Charlotte in 2009 from Atlanta, G.A., and has lived in Athens, G.A., and Philadelphia, P.A. When she is not working, she enjoys curling up with a good book or movie, traveling abroad, playing basketball or working out, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends. Gray likes to cheer for the Georgia Bulldogs, Philadelphia Eagles, Lafayette College Leopards, and, of course, the Winthrop Eagles.