Dr. Valerie Borum was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She joined Toronto Metropolitan University as the new TMU School of Social Work Director in January 2020.  She has experience as both a BSSW Program Director and an MSW Program Director. As a social work practitioner, she directed two programs, supervising social work and human services professionals serving persons with intersecting identities (e.g., disability, race/ethnicity, gender, deafness, etc.).

Dr. Borum’s research and scholarship focus on the role of ethno-culture as a protective and promotive factor in health, mental health, and disability, with attention to Black/African Americans. She studies the intersection of disability, deafness, and ethnoculture, with attention to Black/African American and Afro-Latinx/Black Hispanic families with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. She also studies the intersection of ‘whiteness’ and anti-Blackness/anti-Black racism, and she incorporates Womanist and Afrocentric research, scholarship, and pedagogy.

Dr. Borum completed her post-doctoral studies (e.g., focus on suicide and ethno-culture) at the University of Rochester, School of Medicine, Rochester, NY. Dr. Borum received her Ph.D. in Social Work from Howard University's School of Social Work and her MSW from Gallaudet University. She received the Ester Ottley Fellowship, a one-year internship for one female student who most exemplifies qualities of leadership and humanity while at Howard University. While studying at Gallaudet University for her Master’s in Social Work, all her instruction was in American Sign Language (ASL). She received her B.A. in Psychology with minors in Biology and Philosophy from Mundelein Women’s College at Loyola University, Chicago, IL.

Dr. Borum is currently conducting research focusing on advocacy and families of colour as a research collaborator/consultant with Laurent Clerc National Deaf Educational Research Center at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and she continues to seek external funding for her research.