Dr. Joyvin Benton is a native of Arkansas but has had the pleasure of living on both the East Coast and the West Coast.  After graduating with honors from Arkansas State University, she moved to Sand Diego, California where she completed a Master’s degree in Social Psychology. Her Master’s thesis utilized the Implicit Associations Test, to better understand racial bias in academic settings.  After completing her Master’s she moved to Princeton, NJ where she was a director of the W.E.B. Dubois Scholars Institute an academic enrichment program for middle school and high school students.  She truly enjoyed working with youth and helping them gain tools that would change their lives forever. This experience led her to earn a fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in Urban Systems and Policy at Rutgers University. 

Her doctoral experience was an exhilarating deep dive into the intersections of race, gender and class and provided her with a better understanding of how social structures affect our political, cultural, social, and economic systems.  Her dissertation, a mixed methods case study of a high school in NJ, examined how structures and policies, such as academic tracking, influence the perceptions of school climate, academic self-concept, and motivation of black students.  

Dr. Benton has worked at several nonprofits helping them establish and grow their development and fundraising departments.  Currently, she is the Sr. Gifts Officer at University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff where she is responsible for connecting people’s passions and interests to the needs of the University.  Dr. Benton is a member of several nonprofits and community organizations, including the Junior League of North Little Rock, Compassion Works for All, and the Arkansas Black Philanthropy Collaborative. 

In 2020, she was blessed to have a set of twins, Nia and Nyla, the experience of being a mother to two precious girls has sparked an even deeper and stronger need to create a society that is just and equitable.