Writer
🌿 My passion for family wellness and supporting Black Mamas flows through all my writing—from my wellness guides to my academic research. In an article for Inside Higher Ed, I offer fellow Black Mamas practical wisdom for balancing caregiving and personal growth, grounded in care, clarity, and lived experience. While living abroad with my family in the Dominican Republic, I documented our journey through my blog—sharing intimate stories of resilience, emotional intelligence, and cultural connection that now inform my coaching approach for highly sensitive parents.
📚 These personal narratives complement my book, In Someone Else's Country, where I explore structural racism and inequality in the Dominican Republic while reflecting on conducting ethnographic fieldwork as a mother. This blend of academic insight and lived experience uniquely positions me to guide sensitive parents through their own transformative journeys.
🌈 I continue to write about family wellness as a community-building practice on my blog, and you can also follow my work on Medium where I provide deeper insights and connections to research. Check out my YouTube channel: where professional webinars meet mother-son dance videos that'll make you smile. My goal is to create spaces where we can celebrate Black joy, find meaningful connection, and gather ancestral wisdom to strengthen our parenting journeys and nervous systems. Step into this healing space with me—bring your whole self and discover your community of fellow empowered empaths walking this journey together.
Select Writing
Selected Blog Posts and Op-Eds
✍🏾 “Why I’m Saying ‘Yes’ to a ‘Yes Day’ With My Black Boys”: A Sociologist’s Perspective
I spend most of my days setting boundaries and saying “no” — a pattern that, while necessary, reflects broader societal power imbalances that I study professionally and experience personally.
✍🏾 In the Fight for Racial Equity, Don't Forget About Immigrants
What does it look like for racism to impact the lives of immigrants? Dr. Childers discusses approaches to combating the racism immigrants face.
✍🏾 The question of birth citizenship
Dr. Childers discusses the political debate over the immigration policy in the Dominican Republic (op-ed).
✍🏾 Black motherhood in academe
Dr. Childers explores how race shapes the narrative about motherhood in the academy (op-ed).
✍🏾 How I do it: my village and me
Demystifying the life of an international researcher, mother, wife, and student (blog).
Selected Academic Publications
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Breland-Noble, A., Childers, T., & Boyce, C. A. (forthcoming). CBT for the treatment of mental illness in African/Black Americans: The current evidence base. In F. T. L. Leong, G. Bernal, & N. T. Buchanan (Eds.), Clinical psychology in communities of color: Integrating research and practice. APA Books.
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Childers, T. B. (2024). Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Creating Connection in Divisive Times. Journal of Applied Social Science, 18(2), 263-272. [presidential address]
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Ali, M. and Childers, T. B. (2024) Collaboration to Strengthen Refugee Resettlement and Integration: Insights from the Health Equity for Afghan Refugees (HEAR) Project
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Breland-Noble, A., Wong, M., Childers, T.B., Hankerson, S., & Sotomayor, J. (2015) Spirituality and Religious Coping in African American Youth with Depressive Illness. Mental Health, Religion & Culture. 18(5), 330-341.
In Someone Else's Country
In Someone Else’s Country is a deeply personal and ethnographic exploration of the global ties between structural racism, immigration, citizenship, and statelessness.
Through vivid storytelling, I share what I witnessed in the Dominican Republic—how documentation policies have been used to render Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless in the only country they’ve ever known. I examine the gap between policy and practice, and how racism operates through labor systems and everyday bureaucracy.
This book profiles the lives of dozens of Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent, connecting their lived experiences to broader global conversations around race, migration, and belonging. Alongside the injustice, I also highlight the beauty of collective resistance and the power of community.
You can purchase a copy at your local bookstore or online:
“This text does an excellent job of unpacking the nuances and complexities of Haitians and people of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic.”
—Angela J. Hattery, George Mason University
“This beautifully executed ethnography is an outstanding analysis of the intersection of race and liminal legality. Highly recommended!”