I am a daughter of Fayetteville, North Carolina. A '70s baby. The honored mother of three amazing humans: Epiphany, Jayvyn, and Jalen. The fact that I was a nosy and relatively quiet child who seemed to always be "in grown folks business" greatly influences my thinking, my teaching, my scholarship, and the projects that I create. Those "grown folks" were Black women--my elders. I learned a great deal in those encounters.

I enjoy feeling and hearing music. Escaping into books. Hearing my family’s laughter. Seeing my baby nephew’s smile. Getting lost in the past as I try to understand the present. Increasingly fascintated with reconfiguring the future while it seems that I am watching the world burn.

Currently, I am in the second cohort of NPS Mellon Humanities Postodcotoral Fellows. In this capacity, I serve as the Black Land Use and Migration in the Lowcountry, 1865-1965 Fellow (park hosts: Lowcountry Parks (Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie NHP, Charles Pinckney NHS, Reconstruction Era NHP, and Reconstruction Era National Historic Network).

I am also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in History at Fayetteville State University where I teach African American History & Oral History.

I am the former (2020-2024) CLIR/Mellon Fellow and Postdoctoral Associate for Data Curation in African American History and Culture at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). In that  role, I was the project manager & principal interviewer for the Black Experience at the University of Maryland Oral History Project.

Oral history is central in much of work. I engage in excavation work in an effort to bridge the past and present. My research has a decidedly social justice centered purpose and end goal. My research interests include histories of Black education, Black women’s higher education, activist scholars, & Black Feminism(s). I am most interested in historical and contemporary issues of equity, agency, and thriving in education. In my dissertation research for example, I used oral history methodology to explore the organizing and activism experiences of Black women who attended a Southeastern historically Black university during the Civil Rights/Black Power Era. Such scholarship provides valuable information and possibilities for current organizers and activists.

I hold a PhD in the History of Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and degrees from Fayetteville State University (History) and Fayetteville Technical Community College (Respiratory Care & General Education).