Shirley A. Hill is a professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, where she studies family diver�sity, social inequality, and health care. She is the author of Race, Work, and Family: New Century Values Among African American Men and Women (co-edited with Marlese Durr; Rowman & Littlefield, �2006); Black Intimacies: A Gender Perspective on Families and Relationships (AltaMira, �2005); African American Children: Their Socialization and Development in Families (SAGE, �1999); and other books and articles. Her current research focuses on racial disparities in educational attainment.