Louisiana-native Ja’el Gordon is a historian and genealogist specializing in Deep South antebellum history, genetic genealogy, cultural exhibit installations, and descendant outreach. As a researcher, Ja’el works for and on current and “lost” plantation sites, where she conducts investigative research and provides corrective narrative education programming. Her expertise also includes repository research, collection curation, exhibition installations, cemetery preservation, and event/programming planning. She recently became a Social Sciences Research Council and Ford Foundation grant recipient to have her oral history transcriptions placed in the Library of Congress later this year. Ja’el holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge, a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Southern University New Orleans, and is a Ph.D. Candidate in Higher Education at Jackson State University.