Gerald Lackey is a NIH Predoctoral Fellow in sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a statistical consultant at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science. His academic work focuses on understanding how social networks act as mechanisms in determining many social phenomena. In specific, he has built on the work of other scholars, adding new insights to how networks predict levels of political trust, rates of acculturation, prevalence of depression, and physician prescribing behavior.

Outside of his academic work, Gerald sits on the incorporation board and student executive committee of the US chapter of Sociologists without Borders (SSF), a 501.C.3 organization.