Dr. Jessica Berry
Dr. Jessica Berry is an accomplished and highly respected educator and researcher from Huger, South Carolina. With her B.A. and M.A. in speech-language pathology & audiology from Winthrop University and South Carolina State University, respectively, and her doctoral studies at Louisiana State University in communication disorders with a minor in linguistics, she is an expert in her field. Dr. Berry is a nationally certified and state-licensed speech-language pathologist who has dedicated her career to sharing knowledge about the Gullah Geechee language, culture, and history. As a dedicated higher education professional and the owner of Garden City Gymnastics, LLC in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Dr. Berry is a driven and successful entrepreneur, educator, and researcher.
She founded The O.K.R.A. Soup Foundation, a 501c3 organization that empowers Gullah Geechee youth through the We Been Ya: Geechee Girls Rock Program, reflecting her passion for creating equitable spaces for children who speak non-mainstream varieties of English to succeed. Dr. Berry is a wife and mother of two girls, and in her spare time, she enjoys leading praise and worship, recording new music, and reading. With her impressive accomplishments and unwavering determination to continue her work as an educator and researcher, Dr. Berry is an inspiration to all who know her.
Dr. Tamara Butler
Dr. Tamara T. Butler is a community cultivator and thought leader who draws upon lessons learned growing up on Johns Island, South Carolina. Currently, she serves as the Executive Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture and Associate Dean of Strategic Planning & Community Engagement for the College of Charleston Libraries.
At the College of Charleston, she is a member of the Executive Committee for African American Studies and the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning’s Advisory Board. Beyond campus, Dr. Butler is a board member for the International African American Museum and the Coastal Conservation League, member of the Gibbes Museum of Art’s Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion (DEAI) committee, and an advisory board member for various community-based organizations and initiatives.
The Charleston County School of the Arts alum went on to earn degrees from Xavier University of Louisiana and THE Ohio State University. Prior to joining the team at the Avery Research Center, Dr. Butler was an Associate Professor of Critical Literacies at Michigan State University. As a scholar teaching and working at the intersections of English Education, African American Studies and Ecology, she has authored over 10 journal articles and book chapters that explore youth activism, civic engagement, Black Girlhood, and placemaking. In her co-authored book, Where is the Justice? Engaged Pedagogies in Schools and Communities, Dr. Butler highlights transformative education that centers community partnerships, student voices, and creative educators.
Dr. L. Kaifa Roland
Raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Roland attended Oberlin College (Ohio) where she received her undergraduate degree in Third World Studies (Africa/Latin America emphasis). She then earned a master’s degree in African Studies from Howard University, where she focused on Afro-Brazilian consciousness movements. After managing a USAID literacy project in Johannesburg, South Africa, she returned for her doctorate in Cultural Anthropology at Duke University where she began conducting ethnographic research in Cuba in 1999 that continues to present.
Dr. Roland began her academic career at Kenyon College (Ohio), then taught for 15 years at the University of Colorado before arriving at Clemson in 2021. She published her first book, Cuban Color in Tourism and La Lucha in 2011 with Oxford University Press, and recently submitted her second book manuscript, Minding Her Business: AfroCubana Tourism Entrepreneurs, to Rutgers University Press for Winter 2024 publication.
Dr. Roland is currently an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies where her primary focus is helping students understand the value of thinking through and about Blackness and racialization anywhere in the world.