Deborah J. Burris-Kitchen, Ph.D. is a Professor of Criminology and Department Chair at Tennessee State University in Nashville.  She is the author of Female Gang Participation (Edwin Mellen Press, 1997). She co-authored an article on racism in higher education in the College Student Journal (2000). Her publications include a book titled Short Rage: an autobiographical look at heightism in America (2002). She also has a book chapter (July 2010) titled Pathways to prison: Implications for the Health and Mental health in the African American Community in Handbook for African American Health Psychology: Evidence-based treatment and prevention practices (edited by Robert Hampton & Ray Crowell); From Slavery to Prisons: A Historical Delineation of the Criminalization of African Americans (2010); a journal article titled Short Rage Revisited (2018); and Deviance and Control, Kendall and Hunt (2020) and a second edition of Deviance and Control was released by Kendall and Hunt in 2021.

Dr. Burris-Kitchen has served as the chair of the research committee and as the Vice President of the National Organization of Short-Statured Adults (NOSSA).  She has also served as President for (Association of Humanist Sociology) AHS and was a member of AHS for many years.  She has also been a member of the American Society of Criminology and the American Sociological Association.

Dr. Burris –Kitchen is also an activist who fights against violence, racism, exploitation, greed, and capitalism.