Shanté Jackson-Barnes, MD

Dr. Shanté (SHAHN-tay ) Jackson-Barnes comes to medicine as a first-generation college graduate and medical student from a military family background. She has a commitment to increasing diversity within the medical community and advocating for improving access to psychiatric services in the black and POC community. In 2015, Dr. Jackson-Barnes graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in psychology with a minor in chemistry and a B.S. in criminology with a minor in biology. After graduation, she spent three years working at Coastal State Prison in Savannah, GA as a correctional officer before being promoted to correctional sergeant. Dr. J-B used this pathway to save up for the cost of medical school applications while also gaining a deep understanding of the ways in which minority peoples are impacted by America's carceral system.

In 2019, she matriculated to VCU School of Medicine where she continued to champion her diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by serving as an ambassador for the Student Council for Inclusive Excellence (SCIE), as well as the president of VCU’s Chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). A crowning achievement of her time at VCU was the collaboration with SNMA to create Noir Network, a mentoring database aimed at connecting the members with physicians of color for mentorship, shadowing, research, as well as her induction into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Dr. J-B intends to pursue specialization in child and adolescent psychiatry. Her aim is to work primarily with adolescent-aged populations to be an advocate focused on addressing black mental health disparities, highlighting the importance of early intervention, and providing trauma-informed psychiatric care for adolescents within systems - such as the juvenile justice and foster care systems. Dr. J-B has a strong interest in first break psychosis and trauma-related disorders. She believes in a slow approach to medication management with a focus on psychological and social interventions as first defense. Outside of medicine, Dr. J-B is often found snuggled next to her Union Electrician husband and/or kitty, catching up on her anime watch list, reading the latest fantasy book, or enjoying some good eats.