Donna Gaines, LMSW, Ph.D.

Donna Gaines, LMSW, Ph.D., has written for Rolling Stone, MS, the Village Voice, Spin, Newsday and Salon. Her work has been published in underground fanzines, numerous trade and scholarly collections, professional journals and textbooks. Subjects have included music, tattoos, youth, guns, pornography, TV talk shows, suburbia, spirituality, gender culture, technology and intergenerational love. Gaines has a Ph.D. in Sociology, and a Masters degree in Social Work. An international expert on youth violence and culture, Dr. Gaines has been interviewed extensively in newspapers, for documentaries, on radio and television. She has provided consulting services to attorneys defending young people in death penalty trials, to community leaders, school administrators, clergy, to producers and reporters in the print and broadcast media in the United States, Canada and Europe. A dynamic and popular public speaker, lecturer and workshop facilitator, Gaines has taught sociology at Barnard College of Columbia University and the Graduate Faculty of New School University. Since 2013 Gaines has mentored students in social science, youth, and music studies at SUNY Empire State College.