Dr. Odewale earned her PhD from the University of Tulsa in 2016; becoming the first person of African descent to receive a doctorate in anthropology from TU and the first Black faculty member to join TU’s Department of Anthropology. As a professor of practice in the African American Studies department at the University of Houston and National Geographic Explorer, her work as an archaeologist, educator, and advocate centers around African Diaspora archaeology in the Caribbean and southeastern United States with a community-centered, restorative justice, anti-racist and Black feminist archaeology theoretical approach. She serves on the board of the Society for Historical Archaeology and the Nat Geo Oklahoma Advisory Council, President- Elect for the Society of Black Archaeologists, and leader of the non-profit organization, The Greenwood Diaspora Project.