Melissa Prunty Kemp is a former college lecturer from 1986 – 2012 and an archivist since 2015. In her teaching career at large state institutions, like Virginia Tech and Kent State Universities, and in small colleges, like Morris Brown College and Bauder College, she taught African American literature of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement; Contemporary, Latin-American, and Native American literature; Organizational and Business Communications; and Creative Writing. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hollins University – Roanoke, VA, a Master of Arts degree in English from Virginia Tech – Blacksburg, VA (where she was the second Black student to earn a graduate degree from that department and where she studied with Nikki Giovanni). She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, NC, and briefly taught Creative Writing at Bauder College.
As a Chair of General Education (2003 – 2008) and an archivist in her own company–KPW-AMC–Melissa managed and maintained various sets of records, local histories, and school histories. Melissa has also conducted and edited several oral histories, including “A Hidden History: The Black Experience in the Roanoke Valley” with Harrison Museum and Virginia Tech; Batteaux boats on the James River for the Harrison Museum and Virginia’s Explore park; “The Nurse’s Station: A History of Nurses at Burrell Memorial Hospital” for Harrison Museum; and 18 oral history interviews with Swarthmore College students of the 1960 – 1966 Civil Rights Movement in 2022.
Melissa is the current Digital Archivist & Historian for Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She resides in Centreville, Maryland. She remains active in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Tau Pi Omega Chapter.