Jessica Samuel, Ph.D.

Participant: Jessica Samuel, Ph.D.
Biography: Dr. Jessica S. Samuel is the founder & CEO of Radical Education & Advocacy League, LLC (REAL), an educational equity firm focused on helping BIPOC students thrive, not just survive. She is an educator, interdisciplinary scholar, and decolonial activist whose work focuses on race, education, colonialism and the environment, including where they all might converge, in the United States and Caribbean. Dr. Samuel serves as an appointed member of the Racial Imbalance Advisory Council for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and is a member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). Dr. Samuel is also Education Committee Chair for Right to Democracy, an organization committed to confronting U.S. colonialism in all five American territories. She holds a PhD in American Studies from Boston University, a Master of Education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a Bachelor in African American Studies and Anthropology from Wesleyan University. Dr. Samuel is an alumna of the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers, Teach for America, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, and QuestBridge Scholars program. Dr. Samuel currently lives on the island St. Croix where she was born and raised but will soon be departing for a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis.
Location: US Virgin Islands
Date: March 5, 2024
Interviewer: Joanna Jackson