Shirley Rainey-Brown, Ph.D.

Dean of the School of Humanities & Behavioral Sciences

Fisk University

Dr. Shirley Rainey-Brown holds several administrative positions at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the Dean of the School of Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences, Associate Provost for Online and Distance Education Initiatives and Professor of Sociology. Dr. Brown is a published author of over30 articles and books, serves on academic editorial boards, presents scholarly research papers at local, state and national professional conferences, and presents various workshops to faculty    She was  selected and honored with a Scholarly Excellence Award in 2021 from the University of Tennessee -Knoxville’s College of Arts and Sciences.

She is currently engaged in collaborations with other HBCUs in learning how to “create and code.”  She has guided Fisk University in OER initiative as well as introduced Virtual Reality instruction to key faculty who teaches using VR.

Dr. Brown has a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in Sociology and two master’s degrees from Western Kentucky, one in Sociology and the other degree in Student Personnel in Higher Education and Counseling.

She is married to Rev. Herbert Brown and together they have five adult children (Reggie Brown, Karen Bead, Earnest Rainey(deceased), DeAndrew Rainey and Shir-ern Rainey. Dr. Brown enjoyed singing gospel music, shopping, and traveling.