Dr. Trevellya Ford-Ahmed was born in the coal mining community of Ward, West Virginia. She earned her master’s in speech communication from New York University and her doctorate in mass communications from Ohio University.

Trevellya, better known as Dr. Tee, is a professor in the Department of Communication at West Virginia State University and also serves as its outreach liaison for international development. She has written successful grant proposals approaching $1 million dollars, which led to the opening of an Office of International Affairs, establishing an International Minor and creating travel abroad opportunities for students as well as faculty.

Dr. Tee also recently worked with three non-profit community groups to form the East End Partnership for Furthering Arts and Education, which provides programming for youth ages 5 to 18 in the former Roosevelt Junior High School and at the Clay Center for the Performing Arts.

She has also presented numerous papers at national and international conferences, co-authored journal articles as well as an anthology, which includes "Building Diverse Communities" and "Applications of Communication Research and Nature of a Sistuh, Black Women’s lived Experiences in Contemporary Culture." Her most recent publication is titled, "We Too Are Coal Miner’s Daughters."