Professor Kernodle is an internationally recognized musician and scholar whose research focuses on African American music, gender studies in music, and race in American popular culture. She is the author of the biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, which chronicles the six-decade career of jazz pianist/arranger and educator Mary Lou Williams.  She served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music and on the Editorial Board for the revision of the New Grove Encyclopedia of American Music. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and she has appeared in numerous award-winning documentaries including Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band, Girls in the Band, and Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool. 

Dr. Kernodle has written for and consulted with The American Jazz Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Walker Art Center, NPR, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, BBC, and Carnegie Hall. She currently serves as Curator of the I Dream a World Festival, multi-year initiative with New World Symphony that celebrates the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. She was previously the President of the Society for American Music. 

Professor Kernodle is the 2024-2025 Frank M. Updike Memorial Scholar.