Ashley Brown Burns is a Derrick Gondwe Fellow in the Africana Studies Program. She is a PhD Candidate at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Ashley completed her Masters in Public Policy and Graduate Certificate in African and African American Studies at Duke. She received her BA in Political Economy from Williams College. Her teaching and research interests are interdisciplinary, focused in public policy, social stratification, and American politics. Ashley’s current research examines contemporary housing policy, gentrification, and race politics. She is passionate about community outreach, especially in her hometown of New Orleans; and, has been the Director of the Duke Engage New Orleans civic engagement program for the past five years.