Lucretia Octavia Tripp is an Associate Professor in Elementary Science Education, Curriculum and Teaching, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama. She received the BA from Wesleyan in Middle Grades Education. She received her Master’s Degree in Natural Applied Science with a concentration in Space and Aviation and her Ed. D. in Educational Studies from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. Dr. Tripp's teaching and research centers on developing and motivating in-service and preservice teachers in the area of science and culturally responsive teaching. She is a STEM International Education Consultant and has led several studies abroad programs supporting teaching, mentoring, and working with communities to show how science has a global impact on society. Dr. Tripp has received several awards and recognition; the Undergraduate Teaching Award, Curriculum and Teaching, Auburn University; The Frank T. Hawkins Distinguished Scholar Award, Research Association of Minority Professors, Atlanta, GA; Senior Scholar in Residence at the American Association Colleges and Universities (AAC&U); and Office of Undergraduate STEM Education for the 2015-16, Washington, DC.
Rhonda Collier is a Professor of English at Tuskegee University, where she also serves as the Director of the TU Global Office. She is a Fulbright Scholar, who studied at the Universidad de São Paulo in Brazil. Besides her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, she holds a B.S. and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Georgia Tech respectively. She has published in the areas of Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, African-American, and global hip hop studies. At Tuskegee University, she focuses on American literature, Black American literature, and composition courses with an emphasis on service-learning. Her work “Mothering Cuba: The Poetics of Afro-Cuban Women” appears in Another Black Like Me: The Construction of Identities and Solidarity in the African Diaspora (Cambridge Scholar Press, 2015). She recently published on Afro-German hip hop in the College Language Association Journal. She discusses art as a space of forgiveness and reconciliation. She is passionate about education abroad and cross-cultural student engagement.