
Day 2

Dr. Crystal Rae Coel
Slackers, Vulnerability, Doubt and Boundaries
Dr. Crystal Rae Coel has been the Director of Speech and Debate at Murray State University for over 22 years. For the past ten years, she has also served as the first African American Head of one of the eight residential colleges with over 1200 members. She is a multiple-term Board of Regents Judicial Board appointee. She has appeared in Who's Who in Education and Who's Who in American Law. She has a Bachelor's in Mass Media Arts, a Master's in Communications and a Juris Doctor. Raised in suburban Philadelphia, she's a licensed Pennsylvania lawyer and certified mediator. She is also a state commissioner in Kentucky, a corporate consultant and the author of THE Presentation Guide Book: From the Classroom to the Boardroom, 3rd edition. She loves God as the Trinity, her family and her students.
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I'm an Associate Professor of Literacy and Language, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. I focus on dismantling supremacist patriarchies through research, teaching, and coaching. As a sociocultural literacist, I work to understand personal and public voices and stories to solve personal and public problems. I do this by researching the evolutionary nature and function of literacies and texts through the discourses of narrative research. My work exposes impetuses for various personal and social ills such as racism, sexism, and ableism.
I love to mediate way before dawn, work out like a soldier, and shop alone. I prefer rum to wine, jeans to skirts, and like my heels sky high (except when I'm wearing cowboy boots). Every year I ask my stylist to cornrow and bead my hair in homage to Patrice Rushen and Stevie Wonder (if you know of these artists and understand why demonstrating embodied respect for them is important, we can probably be friends). I believe in ghosts, fairies, and hobbits (for real). Musically, I vibe to old school everything (hip hop, R&B, jazz, rock, and classical) and especially dig Hildegard von Bingen. I trust children a little bit more than adults, respect teens for their fearlessness, admire elders for their tenacity, and occasionally prefer the company of dogs to people. I'm really getting into interior design and have a penchant for acquiring east coast real estate. I'm also a survivor of multiple terrors in love.
I invite you to learn more about me and the projects I am involved with at JeanineStaples.com.