Photo by Scott Crowder

Dr. Conchita Ndege – Cultural Explorer

Conchita’s world travels began in 1968, when the New Orleans native joined the Peace Corps and began teaching art at an all-girls Catholic school in Uganda. “Sometimes fate just brings you a certain place,” she says. “I never knew where Uganda was until they offered me a spot.” While she was there she started a family and ended up staying 10 years, teaching as a private citizen. Since then, she’s also taught in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and has worked in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. The Fulbright scholar has been a history professor at North Carolina A&T for 19 years and was director of the Mattye Reed African Heritage Center for 14, combining her love of art and African culture. “When anyone is outside their own country, or even another region of this country, you get to learn America is not the same, and you have different perspectives. It really widens your view.”