Alana D. Murray, Ph.D. is an educator-activist who has taught world history on both the middle- and high school levels and currently serves as a middle school principal at Shady Grove Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland public schools. She has created pilot lessons on African American history, conducted youth leadership training workshops for several organizations and provided professional development to educators at conferences across the country. More recently, her research interests center on supporting principals in developing the skills to be culturally reflective school-based leaders.

 

 In 2005, she served as the co-editor of the publication, Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching with Deborah Menkart and Dr. Jenice View.  She is the author of The Development of the Alternative Black Curriculum, 1890-1940: Countering the Master Narrative. This book focuses on the impact of black women in shaping the social studies field.

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Murray received a B.A. in government and politics from the University of Maryland, a M.A.T. from Brown University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. Her work on this project stems from both professional and personal experience. She is the granddaughter of Donald Gaines Murray, whose landmark lawsuit against the University of Maryland Law School successfully desegregated the university. Her grandparents dedicated their careers to equal education for all children and her parents instilled the critical roles of research and community organizing.