Faculty Spotlight -- Carol Boyd

In this faculty spotlight we feature Carol Boyd, Deborah J. Oakley Collegiate Professor of Nursing and Women's Studies and Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. A nationally recognized scholar in the study of women and substance abuse, her research focuses on the relationship of gender to drug seeking and drug abuse prevention, including both prescription and illicit drugs. Currently, Dr. Boyd is studying gender differences in prescription drug use and abuse among secondary and college students using web-based research protocols, as well as HIV treatment and prevention, particularly within prison populations.
In the late summer of 1989, I attended my first Women’s Studies (WS) faculty “event,” a meeting held at Pat Gurin’s (now Professor Emerita of Psychology and WS) house; the only person I knew was Beth Reed (now Assoc. Professor of Social Work and WS) who had invited me.   The meeting was held to discuss the future directions of WS– I spoke once, toward the end of the meeting feeling awkward, not very feminist and eager to learn more.  It was two years later that I asked Abby Stewart (now Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and WS) if I could teach a women’s health class and she agreed.  After teaching this course, I became a more confident WS member, attending study groups, serving on EC and delighting in the plans to move to Lane Hall.

My relationship to Lane Hall started long ago; my parents and their siblings attended U-M in the 40’s and belonged to an inter-faith organization that resided in Lane Hall. They spent hours – socializing, dancing and discussing political events – in Lane Hall.  Perched on the corner of State and Washington, my current office pleases my parents greatly.

My grandmothers were responsible for my early commitment to the women’s movement. Grandma Boyd attended college without having the right to vote, a fact that she spoke of often.  Throughout her life, Grandma was an active volunteer; working tirelessly to raise endowments for a women’s college and assisting under-served women through programs she helped start at the YWCA. Both of my grandmothers focused their energies on improving conditions for women and children. They taught me to volunteer.

While an LSA undergraduate at UM, I began volunteering at the Ann Arbor’s Free People’s Clinic.  The Clinic was established to provide health care for the medically indigent; volunteers were nursing, pharmacy and medical students as well as LSA undergraduates who served as patient advocates. It was my first experience with heroin users—so different than student acid trippers—I was drawn to them.

After graduating from LSA, I went to work at Old Main (University Hospital) as a ward clerk and remained connected to my friends at the Free People’s Clinic.  My stint as a ward clerk led me to reconsider my future and in 1974, I enrolled in a four-year nursing program and received my BSN in 1978.  While working and going to college (again), I never forgot my grandmothers’ focus on volunteering. In 1975 I joined People’s Health Action, an activist group of Detroit health professionals who agitated for healthcare reform.

My time with my grandmother, my undergraduate commitment to the Free People’s Clinic and my involvement with People’s Health Action prepared me for my next career change – graduate school at Wayne State University in the College of Nursing.  It was in graduate school that I began studying and working with Detroit women who injected heroin; my relationships with them primed my career as a substance abuse researcher and later, as Director of the UM Substance Abuse Research Center (UMSARC). For over 25 years, I have written about women and girls who abuse heroin, crack, ecstasy, alcohol or pills and continue to advocate for fair and evidence-based health care for them. 
In 2005 I became the Director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and joined the Lane Hall community as an administrator, not only as a WS faculty member.  As my parents in earlier times, I love being part of Lane Hall.

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