WHO I AM
Known for her collaborative advocacy and entrepreneurial leadership, Crystal A. deGregory, Ph.D., leads a suite of narrative platforms designed to transform how individuals and institutions understand their stories.
She is the founder of Her Due, a storytelling and personal
development space centered on women’s lives, and Storied Storytelling, her narrative strategy consultancy for leaders, executives, and mission-driven organizations. She also created HBCUstory, the premiere digital archive for Black college history, and Dorian & Beyond, an oral-history project documenting Hurricane Dorian’s impact in The Bahamas.
Hailed as a “young sister leader” by Spelman College and Bennett College President Emerita Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Dr. deGregory is a proud Bahamian and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the historic Fisk University. She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from Vanderbilt University and an M.Ed. from Tennessee State University. A devoted member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, she is also the author of the forthcoming book The Greatest Good: Nashville’s Black Colleges, Their Students, and the Fight for Freedom, Justice, and Equality, under contract with Vanderbilt University Press.
NAMING WHAT WE INHERIT
REIMAGINING WHAT WE BECOME.
MAGIC + MORTAL
MAGIC AND MORTAL IS MY SONG OF PRAISE TO BLACK WOMEN — OUR MEMORY, OUR MARVELS, AND THE QUIET MIRACLES WE MAKE IN PLAIN SIGHT. THESE POEMS GATHER THE STORIES WE INHERIT, THE TRUTHS WE CARRY, AND THE POWER WE WIELD SIMPLY BY LIVING WHOLE IN A WORLD THAT OFTEN EXPECTS US TO BE OTHERWISE.
They honor the women who raised us, saved us, and sometimes had to become their own rescue. Moving through history, silence, joy, ache, and resilience, the collection lifts what has been overlooked and calls forward what deserves to be remembered.
NAMING WHAT WE INHERIT
REIMAGINING WHAT WE BECOME.
HERE ARE THE PLACES WHERE MY WORK LIVES — WHERE STORY BECOMES STRATEGY, WHERE TRUTH BECOMES PRACTICE, AND WHERE WOMEN AND COMMUNITIES RISE INTO THEIR OWN POWER.
Founder & Principal, Storied Storytelling
I help leaders, institutions, and creatives find the language they need for moments that matter. Through narrative strategy, message development, and clarity work, I partner with people who want to lead with purpose, communicate
with courage, and build stories that align with the futures they’re trying to create.
Founder & Creative Director, Her Due
Her Due is my women-centered storytelling platform—part podcast, part personal development space, part cultural gathering ground. It exists to honor the women who are long overdue their recognition, and to create the kind of conversations that help us step more fully into the women we are becoming.
Founder & Editor, Bethune at 150 Syllabus
A digital humanities project committed to legacy, history, and the public good. Bethune at 150 brings scholars, artists, and community voices together to honor the life and leadership of Mary McLeod Bethune, offering resources that illuminate her work and inspire the next generation.
WHERE MY CALLING MEETS ITS RECOGNITION
01.
Presidential
Service Award,
Barber-
Scotia College
National recognition for leadership, service, and civic impact.
02.
Honorary Lifetime Member, Southern Association for
Women Historians
03.
Collegium of
Scholars Inductee,
Morehouse College
04.
Founding Director, Mary McLeod
Bethune Institute
THE HEART OF MY WORK
I AM A HISTORIAN SHAPED BY MEMORY AND MEANING, AND A STORYTELLER COMMITTED TO THE DIGNITY AND FLOURISHING OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN UNSEEN, UNHEARD, OR UNDERESTIMATED.
MY WORK SITS AT THE CROSSROADS OF TRUTH AND CARE — WHERE STORIES REVEAL WHAT WE’VE SURVIVED, AND STRATEGY POINTS TOWARD WHAT WE DESERVE NEXT.
I help leaders, institutions, and communities turn story into strategy, and strategy into the next right step. Whether I’m speaking to a room of decision-makers, convening people across difference, or writing for a public audience, my aim is the same: to create clarity where confusion once lived, courage where fear once lingered, and language where silence once held power.
