Top 100 Women of Impact: Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch

Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch

Dean, Graduate School, Arkansas State University

About me: I am dean of the graduate school and professor of history at Arkansas State University. A rural, women’s and African American history scholar, I am the author of “Crossing the Line: Women and Interracial Activism in South Carolina During and After World War II,” “Better Living By Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1913-1965” and the co-editor of “Arkansas Women: Their Lives and Times.” My next book project focuses on African Americans and the American Farm Bureau Federation. I’m also the co-editor of the University of Arkansas Press “Rural Black Studies” series. I served on the Arkansas Women’s Commission and am co-founder of the Arkansas Delta Women’s Leadership Academy. I am a U.S. Army Persian Gulf War Veteran.


Lives/Works in: Jonesboro

Best Career Advice: Know your worth and add tax. You are enough!

Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Extend grace to yourself. You deserve it.

Proudest Moment of Impact: Seeing women, often former students, realize their self-worth and excel.

Call to Action: The importance of women leaders of all types as community change agents.

What Keeps Me Motivated: My faith. I’m a very spiritual person. I believe in a higher being that guides me to do the right thing in my job and life. I’m also motivated by my family. They support me, they motivate me, they tell me when I’m wrong. Knowing that they are right behind me motivates me because I know that they support me, love me. They tell me the truth when I need to hear it, they are very candid with me, but they also love me and want me to excel. That is very important because I want to excel and continue to make them proud.


TOP 100 WOMEN OF IMPACT IN ARKANSAS 2023
A Women’s Foundation of Arkansas Initiative

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