Mikhiela Sherrod, PhD

Dr. Mikhiela Sherrod is Senior Associate with KHA. In this role, she has participated in planning, evaluation, and technical assistance projects on topics including environmental justice, Native American child health, the social determinants of health, and school food procurement. Dr. Sherrod has seven years of work experience as lead coordinator/community organizer and director at the nonprofit Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc. At that organization, she oversaw a social justice and economic development initiative targeting southern, rural, African American women, farmers, and food entrepreneurs and led the development of a five-year strategic plan, which revitalized the organization into a valuable service hub for a locally owned regional food system that addressed disparities in access to healthy affordable food and economic opportunities. 

In Southwest Georgia, Dr. Sherrod was the lead organizer of a successful start-up business – a grassroots, women-owned worker and farmer pecan cooperative, Southern Alternatives Agricultural Cooperative, Inc., where she oversaw all aspects of business development, including funding and training in production, marketing, business, and product development. She is experienced in regional economic development, assisting women across the region in establishing farming businesses and successfully developing the first licensed commercial kitchen and business incubator in South Georgia. Other experience includes development of a cultural heritage trail across the Black Belt states of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and a women-owned sewing business, Southern Journeys, which spanned the three states.

Dr. Sherrod earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tuskegee University and a PhD in Genetics from the University of Iowa. Her scientific research investigating the genetics of hypertension has been published in peer-reviewed journals, and she completed year one of an MPH in Epidemiology at Rutgers University. Dr. Sherrod lives in Atlanta, Georgia.