Jessica S. Samuel, Ph. D. 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. Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Social Science Research Council, and a VCU Publishing Research Award. She holds a Ph. D. in American Studies from Boston University, a Master of Education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and Anthropology from Wesleyan University. Samuel is an alumna of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Teach for America, and the Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers. She is also the founder and CEO of Radical Education & Advocacy League, LLC (REAL), an educational equity firm focused on improving educational outcomes among BIPOC students. Currently, Jessica Samuel resides in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she was born and raised.