About Alana

As a pre-teenager growing up in New York City, I realized I was developing a speech disfluency. At a time when I was winning awards and being asked to give speeches I found myself frozen with fear and anxiety manifesting in my speech.  I  found myself navigating not only the vulnerabilities that accompany a young girl’s teenage years, but not being able to access the agency to speak without fear. Luckily, it was around that same age I found dance, drawing and singing which is where I found most release, authenticity  and the most joy.  It's this early life challenge, with communicating with and to the world, that was transformed into a calling and commitment to social justice work which empowers those who feel silenced and marginalized. I advocate for and help people find their voice!

When I was 19 I visited a prison for the first time. It was there I saw families and communities being torn apart by addiction, trauma, illness and systems of surveillance.  This led to me working as an advocate and researcher partnering with criminal justice-impacted communities. As I advance my professional identities as a professor and teacher at the intersection of Criminology and Social Work, I’m channeling these commitments to build my training in becoming a Dance Movement/ Arts- based Therapist. Regardless of whether I’m wearing my social worker hat, professor, community-based researcher or mental health clinician hat I am committed to helping individuals in their journey to find their voice and navigate through various sources of oppression, illness and other societal threats to their well being.

Recent Fellowship&Awards:

The Elizabeth Butler Award

Recognized for a strong commitment to social change and leadership - University of Chicago, Crown Family School of Social Work (May 2023). Read more

Teacher Of The Year

UIC, Criminology Law and Justice Student Association (2021-2022)

Research Ethics Training Institute

Fordham University,  Faculty Parter (2021- Present)

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Fellow (2020- Present)

Outstanding Research Award

University of Illinois Chicago’s, Office of the Provost - 2020

British Society of Criminology Recognition

“Every time I tell my story I learn something new”: Voice and inclusion in research with Black women with histories of addiction”

Named by the British Society of Criminology (BSC) as one of eight articles published over the past 12 years that provides critical, new potential avenues of addressing crime and harm.- 2020

Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy

University of Illinois- Faculty Fellow- 2020

Behavioral Science Training Postdoctoral Fellow

New York University, Rory Meyers College of Nursing,  2013-2015

  • "Working closely with Alana has been a hugely enriching experience for me. As an earlier career academic, I have especially benefited from how generously she shares her knowledge and skills. Her leadership style is collaborative, consensus based, and without ego. Alana's way of working creates a warm and supportive culture, attentive to the realities of people's lives as whole beings. I value this approach and have developed professionally because of it."

    — Jessica Bird, PhD Professor University of Illinois at Chicago

  • "Dr. Alana Gunn is a hard-working, compassionate, and committed individual. She goes over and beyond to fulfill her responsibilities, by seeking out additional resources to enhance the project, and even assisting a newcomer, such as myself, with nuggets to navigate through my first experience as a community researcher. To work with her is a blessing!"

    — Linda Weatherspoon, Associate Director, Roll Call Organization

  • "I have worked with Dr. Gunn on several research projects. Dr. Gunn is extremely talented and an excellent subject matter expert, particularly as it relates to incarcerated or formerly incarcerated populations. Dr. Gunn is a phenomenal collaborator. She has contributed theoretical and methodological expertise to the manuscripts we have written together. I am excited to work on future projects with Dr. Gunn and am confident that she will bring knowledge, skills, and passion to any research, consulting, or scholarly endeavor."

    – Dr. Joan M. Blakey, Director of School of Social Work, University of Minnesota

  • “Alana is a talented community-engaged researcher. She is intentional about building relationships with her research partners, she explores social problems collectively with her partners, and she recognizes the essential role that communities play in creating strategies for change.”

    – Dr. Kelli Canada- Professor University of Missouri

  • Alana is brilliant in her sensitivity and ability to attune to the needs of others, while creating space for progression and the growth of individuals in the community. She is insightful and measured about what is possible in a criminalizing climate, as well as she understands what is necessary to change the conditions and shift the experience of hurting individuals. Her ideas are considerate of economics, emotions, barriers, possibilities and future outcomes. She is a quiet force in her attitude as a professor, modeling a secure approach to seeing people as essential to the process, and solving problems to elevate humanity."

    – Shelly Quiles, LCSW Founder of Xplor Therapy

"You don’t have to learn how to love yourself. You just have to remember there was nothing wrong with you to begin with. You just have to come home."

-  nayyirah waheed  

Get in touch.