Shafantae Desinord
Dr. Shafantae Desinord is a Haitian-American woman born and raised in Belle Glade, Florida. Her research is closely tied to her culture and experiences growing up in South Florida with immigrant parents. She is a University of Florida alumna who graduated in 2017 with a B.A. in African-American Studies and a minor in Anthropology. She then joined the AmeriCorps non-profit organization City Year, where she taught social studies at Turner Elementary in Washington, D.C. After her year in the corps, she enrolled in graduate school at Howard University, earning her M.A. in history with a focus on diaspora studies in 2020.
While pursuing her master’s degree, she presented her research on Haitian Americans, African Americans, and the American Dream at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora conferences in 2019. In 2021, she began working as a project manager for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, where she managed membership outreach, event planning for conferences and festivals, and educational programs for historians. At the same time, she served as a project manager for the National Park Service on their Network to Freedom grants, overseeing the grant cycle related to budget maintenance and communication with awarded grantees.
Over the years, she has completed internships focused on research and archival work with organizations and institutions such as the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (Cultural Heritage in the Forest), Greening Youth Foundation, Bowie State University, Williams College (Sterling A. Brown papers), and A Voice Project (Congressional Black Caucus). Dr. Desinord is a recent graduate of Howard University, where she earned her Ph.D. in U.S. history with a minor in public history in May 2025.
With a passion for academia, she served as a graduate assistant in the Department of History at Howard University, where she taught undergraduate courses in U.S. and diaspora history. In 2023, she started a teaching fellowship at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina. At this college preparatory, K-12 independent school, she delivered lessons and contributed to courses such as AP African American Studies, U.S. History, and HERstory: Global Women’s History. She also served as an advisor to the Black Student Union. In the fall of 2023, she participated in a panel for the Upper School Diversity Conference at Charlotte Latin School. During this panel, she discussed topics related to empowering student activism and social justice initiatives.
Dr. Desinord is recognized as an energetic, dedicated, confident, and insightful leader rooted in integrity. She currently works as the education and interpretation specialist for the African American Heritage Commission, focusing on interpretation, curriculum development, and outreach for K-12 students across North Carolina. Dr. Desinord continues to research Haitian-American history in South Florida and throughout the U.S. She also serves as a historian for the Worthington Farm oral history project, which is part of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the National Park Service. Through this project, Dr. Desinord collaborates closely with people in Florida and Maryland to identify traditionally associated groups, related groups, and groups of interest connected to the seasonal harvest at Worthington Farm at Monocacy National Battlefield in Frederick, Maryland.
Dr. Desinord is motivated by her love and passion for history, which extends beyond books and classrooms. She believes that many ordinary people have gone out into the world and achieved remarkable things and that their stories should not only be preserved but also be shared in a way that inspires and guides future generations. Her soil is her fortune.