Dr. Amy Yeboah Quarkume, affectionately known as Dr. A, is a daughter of Africa, a scholar, filmmaker, data scientist, and Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. She holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies, two Master’s degrees in Sociology and African American Studies, and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Data Analytics and Computational Social Science from the University of Massachusetts, along with a Certificate of Data Science from Harvard Extension School and MIT.
Dr. A is an Andrew Mellon New Direction Fellow, a Mellon Just Futures Initiative invited Social Justice Consortium partner, a Brown University Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing scholar, a National Center for Atmospheric Research Innovator Fellow, and a White House Initiative HBCU All-Star Campus Mentor.
Her work as a data scientist centers around AI Bias, data inequality, and environmental justice. Currently, she employs an Africana Studies framework to examine the intersections of race and technology.
Dr. A is presently the Director of Graduate Studies for the Master’s Program in Applied Data Science at the Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics (CADSA), advancing Howard University’s first major effort in becoming a hub for data science social justice research and training for the next generation of data scientists. Additionally, she is the developer of the Hello Black World curriculum, designed for Africana Studies majors, minors, and friends in the humanities and social sciences who want to explore and develop data and computer science competencies centered around the presence of African contributions and imagination. Furthermore, she is the PI of the CORE futures lab and Co-PI for the Race and Tech lab.
Additionally, Dr. A has published in the Journal of Women, Gender, and Families of Color; Mosaic Magazine; Black Scholar; CLA Journal and is currently working on her second book project titled “Data Pollution and Savage Algorithms.” Additionally, she has contributed to and been an invited guest on BET News, PBS NewsHour, Direct TV, American Radio Works, Al Jazeera America’s The Stream, Philadelphia Community Access Media, Roland Martin TV One News Show, and Mother Jones.