Jillean McCommons is a Ph.D. candidate studying the social history of Black Appalachians in the twentieth century. Her op-ed columns have been published in the Lexington Herald-Leader, the History News Network, and Newsweek. She is recipient of the Lyman T. Johnson Fellowship, the Robert S. Lipman Graduate Fellowship, and the 2018 Eller & Billings Student Research Award. She is a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia from 2020-2022.