ABOUT ME
Hey Ya’ll!!! I am a believer in Christ, a mother, a first-generation college graduate, and I am proud of my Geechie/Gullah heritage!
I currently serve as assistant professor and coordinator of the Teaching English Language Learners (TELL) program at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. I completed my bachelor’s degree in English at Voorhees College (Go VC!!) in Denmark, SC and a master’s degree in TESOL at The State University of New York at Stony Brook.
I currently serve as assistant professor and coordinator of the Teaching English Language Learners (TELL) program at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. I completed my bachelor’s degree in English at Voorhees College (Go VC!!) in Denmark, SC and a master’s degree in TESOL at The State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 2012, I checked off one of the items on my “academic bucket list” when I earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in the area of ESL /Bilingual Education from the University of Florida (It’s great to be a FLORIDA GATOR) .
While writing for academic journals is what (most) academics are trained to do, I absolutely enjoy creating public scholarship that is easily accessible for those who actually shape policy and can influence practice. My most recent publications include Combating hate via coalition building and continuous learning (2021), The Weaponization of English (2020), An African immigrant’s (counter) narrative of language, race, and identity (2020), and #BlackImmigrantsMatter: Preparing teachers to center Black immigrants’ intersectional identities through activism and education (2020). I currently serve on the Editorial Advisory
Board of the Caribbean Educational Research Journal, the TESOL Journal, and Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice Journal.
