Ana Edwards a public historian, preservation advocate, and assistant professor in the Dept. of African American Studies at VCU. She holds a BA in Visual Arts from California State Polytechnic University at Pomona and an MA in History and Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Public History. She has been interrupting the history of Gabriel's Rebellion and Richmond’s role in slavery since the 2004 founding of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, a social justice initiative of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, which led the struggle for a Memorial Park in Shockoe Bottom—now part of the Shockoe Project. She was a member of the working group that helped create the African American Preservation Fellowship Program at Preservation Virginia and member of the Friends of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground. Ana also helped to found the Virginia Friends of Mali and sister city relationship between Richmond and Segou, Mali, and has recently completed her role as lead interviewer for the East Marshall Street Well Project Oral History Project for the Health Humanities Lab, VCU College of the Humanities.