Cheryl Townsend Gilkes (born 1947) is an American sociologist, womanist scholar, college professor, and ordained Baptist minister.
[1] Gilkes earned three degrees in sociology from Northeastern University, in Boston.
From 1981 to 1982, she was a research assistant at the Women's Studies in Religion Program at Harvard University.
[1][2] In 1987, she joined the faculty at Colby College, where she is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies.
[4] An ordained minister, Gilkes serves as the assistant pastor for special projects at Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.