African diasporic Cultural Resource Center (AdCRC)

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Tara Jones, Ph.D
AdCRC Coordinator

Welcome to the African diasporic Cultural Resource Center (AdCRC)!

We invite you to make full use of the African diasporic Cultural Resource Center, our space, peer mentorship, and programs, and to take advantage of the benefits that EOP provides through our holistic counseling services. No matter where you are from or where your ancestral roots lie within and beyond the African diaspora, there is a special place for you in EOP and at the AdCRC!

I am an Academic Achievement Counselor III and Coordinator of the African diasporic Cultural Resource Center for the Educational Opportunity Program. I am a proud Gaucho alumna, Class of 2003. I graduated from UCSB with degrees in Sociology and Black Studies, graduating with honors and distinction in the major. I am also a final stage doctoral candidate in Depth Psychology, specializing in Community, Liberation, & Eco-Psychologies at Pacifica Graduate Institute (PGI). I earned Masters degrees in the Science of Teaching at Fordham University, Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology at PGI, and Depth Psychology, specializing in Community, Liberation, and Eco-psychologies at PGI. I also studied Caribbean Literature and Multicultural Societies of the Caribbean at the University of Sussex, in Brighton, England in the School of African and Asian Studies. 

I have had various careers at UCSB and beyond, having served once before as an EOP Counselor and a Resident Director for Anacapa Hall and San Rafael Hall. As an educator, I was a secondary school educator in Harlem, New York with the New York City Department of Education, a cooperating teacher responsible for training student teachers in partnership with The City University of New York’s Teacher Education Program, and a social-emotional learning facilitator throughout various Santa Barbara public schools and private schools, including Santa Barbara Middle School and Santa Barbara City College. As a community mental health specialist, I served as a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee, Intern, and Associate, providing psychotherapy for teens, formerly incarcerated individuals, individuals recovering from substance abuse, individuals experiencing homelessness, and those with various mental health diagnoses in local non-profit settings. I was also an Employment Specialist for The Salvation Army Hospitality House, where I coordinated regional employment fairs, worked with local business owners to create employment opportunities for clients, and developed an employment program to train and support individuals with significant barriers to employment to become employment-ready. 

I am currently an academic researcher and scholar. I research, publish, and present at academic conferences on topics including: teacher well-being, ideology and U.S. schooling, Pan-African traditions of educational fugitivity, revolutionary black mothering, black maternal necropolitics, and legacies of transnational African diasporic research. My forthcoming scholarly work is being published in the peer-refereed journal, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism. My visual art, which explores themes of Africana womxn’s spiritualities and healing, has appeared on covers of the National Political Science Review, a publication of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and has been showcased at the UCSB’s Multicultural Center’s 2011 exhibit, Bridging Through the Arts: Transracial Community Building, as well as other venues. 

As a Santa Barbara local, I enjoy nature walks, nature photography, and the local arts scene. I earned belts in the martial art, Ki Aikido. I am also a mother and a wife in a family of proud Gauchos. I am honored to return once more to UCSB to continue to support a new generation of Gauchos to grow in scholarship, leadership, citizenship, and service!