"Knowledge is the prime need of the hour."
-Mary McLeod Bethune

Dr. Ashley Robertson Preston is an author, curator, and Assistant Professor of History at Howard University.  Her past positions include serving as director of the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation-National Historic Landmark at Bethune-Cookman University while she also was an archives technician for the National Archives for Black Women’s History at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House-National Historic Site. She is the author of Mary McLeod Bethune in Florida: Bringing Social Justice to the Sunshine State which examines how the educator rose to prominence while fighting for equality at the height or racial unrest in the state. Dr. Preston’s second book Mary McLeod Bethune the Pan-Africanist  examines the international activism of Bethune and her travels abroad. She has published articles in the Journal of Negro Education, Journal of Black Studies and Phylon. Dr. Preston's research interests focus on the activism of Black women during the early twentieth century and the ways in which they uplifted their communities, created institutions, and stood against systemic racism.