Dr. Crooks is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing and faculty affiliate at the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CDIS) in the Department of Medicine. Her community-engaged research program centers on addressing sexual health disparities among Black girls and women. Her current research focuses on the development and testing of IMAGE (IMARA for Black Male caregivers and Girls Empowerment) a family based HIV prevention intervention designed to increase the protection of Black girls' sexual and reproductive health funded by NIMHD (R01MD018929). Dr. Crooks earned her BSN and PhD in Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed NIH-funded (K12GM0000580), postdoctoral training at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Her research has been supported by federally- and internally funded awards. Dr. Crooks is actively involved in several organizations such as the National Black Nurses Association and Center for AIDS Research. Dr. Crooks career is dedicated to protecting Black female sexual and reproductive health. She has been invited to collaborate on projects to aimed at improving Black maternal health outcomes, and HIV outcomes among Black sex workers in Chicago.