Adele Logan Alexander, Research Professor at George Washington University, was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Council on the Humanities. She is the author of Ambiguous Lives: Free Women of Color in Rural Georgia, 1789-1879 and Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family, 1846-1926 and numerous articles and essays. Born and raised in New York City, she and her husband, Clifford Alexander, have two children, five grandchildren, and live in Washington, D. C.