Originally from Mobile, Alabama, Brooke Thomas earned her BA in history from Spelman College, her MA in history from the University of South Alabama, and her Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Her research specializes in African-American History, specifically Black women’s history, African-American organizing, and African-American formal politics. Her dissertation-turned manuscript explores how members of the Black colligate sororities strategically pivoted their ideologies and programming, beginning in the 1930s, to think more broadly about public policy and how to make the state accountable to the needs of Black people, particularly around issues of employment, economic justice, health, and full political inclusion and representation. Brooke is currently the African American History postdoctoral scholar in the Richards Civil War Era Center and Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University and in August 2024, she will begin as an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of Alabama.