Reisha Raney

As a non-resident fellow of Harvard Universitys W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, which is under the direction of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Reisha is the researcher for the Daughter Dialogues oral history archive, the creator of DaughterDialogues.com, and host of the Daughter Dialogues podcast, and - documenting the oral histories of members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) who have African American lineage. Reisha is a direct descendant of Thomas Turpin, a Revolutionary War patriot and president Thomas Jeffersons uncle, through an enslaved woman named Mary, which led her to join the DAR. She is the past Maryland State Society DAR Organizing Secretary-the first African American officer in the state of Maryland and the fourth known in the history of the society for any state. Mrs. Raney is also the founder of Encyde Corporation, a systems engineering company- ranked in the top 4% of all women-owned businesses in the country. Reisha has been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washingtonian, The Japan Times, Politico, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Cheddar TV, and ABC and NBC News affiliates in Washington D.C. Reisha earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Spelman College and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, both in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a boat captain, owns an RV, and has traveled to over 50 countries spanning all seven continents.