Dr. Lamaya Covington Williams was born in Winston-Salem, NC. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wake Forest University and has completed postgraduate work at The University of Georgia, Salem College, and The University of Amsterdam in Holland. She earned her doctoral degree in English, with a focus on rhetoric, writing and discourse studies as well as literary and cultural studies, from Old Dominion University. She teaches courses in the humanities, including English literature and composition and Women’s and Gender studies. Lamaya is also a published poet; Kirkus Reviews wrote that she “picks up the baton from Maya Angelou, raising her voice to decry racism and sexism in America.” Her research areas include Black feminist theory and literacies, activist rhetoric, archival research, composition pedagogy, Black maternal health, and storytelling methodologies. She is interested in how personal narratives inform effective activist strategies. She has published her work in scholarly journals, like Peitho, and has presented her research at various academic conferences, including the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric Deconference at Spelman College, Christopher Newport University’s Conference on Women and Gender, and The Conference on College Composition & Communication Annual Conventions in Chicago and Baltimore. She enjoys teaching, reading and writing poetry, and laughing with her family and friends. Joy is resistance!