Vanessa A. Williams is currently a middle school social studies teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. Prior to teaching, she studied anthropology and education at Davidson College and received her master's in education at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education studying Education, Culture and Society. Vanessa previously served as a site coordinator for a CDF Freedom Schools site and she currently serves on the Young Professional's Council at the Levine Museum of the New South, assistant directs a dance company in Charlotte, and co-owns Red Rice and Beans Diaspora Bookstore.