Neema Avashia has been a teacher and education activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003. She currently teaches Ethnic Studies at the BCLA/McCormack Lower School in Dorchester. Raised in southern West Virginia by Indian immigrant parents, Avashia also is a writer who uses personal essays to explore questions of race, gender, sexuality, and identity. Her first book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, will be published by WVU Press in March of 2022.