Kierra N. Toney is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cincinnati, where she is a Taft Dissertation Fellow and Albert C. Yates fellow. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and her Master of Arts from the University of Cincinnati, both in Sociology. She is from Chattanooga, TN, and is a first-generation college student. Her research interests include Race and Racism, Urban Communities, and Education. She uses qualitative methods to explore the ways Black people interact with and within urban institutions to generate knowledge and resist antiblackness, while also creating spaces to safely be Black. She previously served as a research assistant for the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network and an assistant editor for the academic journal Social Problems. Kierra is a scholar-activist and uses her research as a tool to aid in equity and liberation for marginalized groups. 

Kierra served as an assistant editor for the journal Social Problems from 2021-23.

She previously worked as a research assistant with the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN) to examine the provision of contraceptives through Ohio’s family planning safety net, where she contributed a CRT perspective.

Kierra is a co-editor of the book Sociology and Hip Hop: an Anthology published through Cognella and first author on a number of forthcoming empirical manuscripts.