Candice Logan-Washington
is a native of Baltimore, Maryland and was educated in the Baltimore County Public School System. She holds a doctorate in Urban Educational Leadership with a dual focus in administration and planning, and social policy from Morgan State University. She is an adjunct professor and researcher at Notre Dame University of Maryland and Morgan State University. Her research interests include equity and access for marginalized student populations, teacher/leadership preparation and in-service teacher/ leadership sustained proficiency, program evaluation, organizational development, executive leadership coaching, and black women abolitionist research. She believes 21st century teaching, learning, and leading requires us to let go of what we currently know about the educational landscape and embrace the dexterity, alternative routes to mastery, global prospective,and simple complexities that today's learners have to offer.
Dr. Ida E. Jones
is the University Archivist at Morgan State University. She is caretaker for important archives, including the Beulah M. Davis Special Collection. She is a historian with vast knowledge about Black women, authoring many books on Founding Black Mothers. Dr. Jones is a consummate scholar who believes deeply in the words of Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune who stated “power must walk hand in hand with humility and the intellect must have a soul.”
Gretchen Rudham
Dr. Gretchen Rudham is an assistant professor of Urban Educational Leadership at her alma mater, Morgan State University, in the School of Education and Urban Studies. She is a Humanities scholar with a background in English Literature, Film Studies, and Museum education. Dr. Rudham brings nearly 20 years of experience teaching urban education, from out-of-school youth in Baltimore’s GED programs to first-year college students at the Community College of Baltimore County. Her research interests include social justice leadership, and Critical Race Theory as applied to dismantling white supremacy in curriculum, schools, and society.
Dr. Arline Wilson
is an Andrew Mellon Just Transformations postdoc with the Center for Black Digital Research (CBDR) at Penn State University. Her research covers the 19th-century and focuses on African American history and literature, gothic studies, trauma studies, and race and analyzes the ways in which Black writers in the 19th -century used gothic language to articulate forms of soul murder traumas. Her digital humanities work includes building digital archives for the Black Women’s Organizing Archive and curating a digital exhibit entitled “Becoming Mary Ann Shadd Cary: A Life in the Pursuit of Justice.”
Brandi Locke
is an English doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware. Her dissertation traces the development of Black feminism and literary traditions among women activist-writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is also a senior researcher at Penn State’s Center for Black Digital Research, where currently she is lead coordinator for a multi-year project to produce murals and public programming in Philadelphia memorializing the Colored Conventions and women's contributions to the movement. Her teaching interests include Black archival research methods, Black digital humanities methods, and community-centered storytelling and arts-based interpretative work.
Anthony Cohen
is an historian, author, and explorer of the American past. He has retraced 1,200 miles of Underground Railroad history by foot, boat and rail. Cohen is a guide through the landscape, revealing methods for navigation and survival. He is Founder of The Menare Foundation, Inc., a non-profit preserving the legacy of the Underground Railroad.
Dr. Bruce Purnell
is the founder and executive director of a community based non-profit organization called The Love More Movement. He is a psychologist, author, artist, speaker and community activist. Dr. Purnell is a direct descendent of Underground Railroad conductors, Station Masters, Freedom Fighters and Educators. Like his ancestors, he has dedicated his life to creating a world where Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, Purpose, Equity, Transformation and Liberation are lifestyles.
Dr. Cheryl LaRoche
is Associate Research Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park. She identifies as a historian and archeologist. She holds a Ph. D. in American Studies with a concentration in Archaeology and African American history and has consulted for National Park Service sites, the African Burial Ground Project and numerous museums and historic sites. She will help us reclaim Harriet Tubman’s legacy and teach us about her concept, the geography of resistance.
Linda Harris
is the Director of Events and Programming at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, MD. What started as an inspiration to walk with seven other women in Harriet’s footsteps then changed to moving to Cambridge to devote her time and energy to help the education center. She blends her talent for jazz music with keeping Tubman’s legacy alive.
Dr. Susheel Bibbs
is an acclaimed classical singer, award-winning director-filmmaker, actress, and Humanities scholar. Her expertise in the Arts and Humanities, her Chautauqua performances, and her lifelong dedication to unlock the mysteries of Founding Black Mother Mary Ellen Pleasant will be invaluable to our institute. Bibbs has sung internationally in opera, in concert, on television and in films, and she founded the new Living Heritage Foundation in Sacramento. Today she is best known for award-winning PBS documentaries and her one-woman touring presentations on Mary Pleasant, The Mother of Civil Rights in California.
Michelle Lanier
is the Director of the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties and served as the founding executive director of North Carolina’s African American Heritage Commission. Lanier is a scholar, oral historian, filmmaker, museum professional, and folklorist. She is a faculty member at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies.
Dr. Lynnette Young Overby
is a Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of Delaware, Director of the Community Engagement Initiative, Founding Director of the Partnership for Arts & Culture, and Artistic Director of the Sharing Our Legacy Dance Theatre. Her Dance Theatre productions, including Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Her Life and Legacy have taken place in Delaware, Texas, Alabama, Virginia, Washington, DC, Australia, South Africa, and Belize. Dr. Overby also serves on the National Council for the Humanities.
Paul Grant
is filmmaker, motion designer, oral historian and owner & senior producer @ Ascender Films, Inc., a digital advertising and film production company based in Washington, DC. Grant wrote, produced, and directed the short film, The Visit, about a surprise visit Tubman makes to Douglass that alters the course of history.
Sister Doris Goudeaux
is the historian for the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans. The predominantly black order dates back to 1842, when it was started by Henriette Delille, a free woman of color. The Sisters of the Holy Family will enlighten us on Founding Black Mother Delille who was declared "venerable" in 2010 and is on the road to sainthood.
Vashti DuBois
is the Executive Director of the Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia. Her home-as-museum honors the complex history of the Colored Girl. As a space where the full humanity of Black women and girls is the core mission, her museum embodies The Search. DuBois is a visionary, bringing her expertise on curation, artifacts, and using archiving as praxis towards freedom.
Kendrick Kenney II
Kendrick Kenney II is an assistant professor and Chair of the Communications Arts Department at the Notre Dame of Maryland University, and a digital media professional with significant experience in film, digital media, and TV production. Professor Kenney will be equal parts pedagogy and technical expert. He will teach workshops on embedding digital media into teaching, and offer technical support to pedagogy pods. He is also the Production Lead for N.A.G. Productions, the Digital Media Production team for the project.