Meet Dr. L. Richelle

Dr. Lanette Richelle Riddlespriger Edwards is an educator with over 30 years of educational experience. As a native of St. Louis, Missouri, Doctor L attended a parochial school located in Kinloch, Missouri. She later transferred to a public school located in Berkeley, Missouri. Doctor Edwards was subjected to seven years of mandatory school busing and four years of voluntary desegregation. Per state mandate, she was among the first African-American students to desegregate schools in Ferguson, Missouri. As a high school student she gained appreciation for cultural competence in pursuit of academic excellence. Her participation in school desegregation changed her career path. After high school graduation, Dr. Edwards continued her education by earning a Bachelor of Science in German from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Missouri. She received training as a secondary teacher from Harris Stowe State University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware.

As a high school teacher, and middle school and high school administrator, she embraced the concepts of personal and professional development. Doctor L's early exploits were devoted to teaching in small rural learning communities including Leeton School in Leeton, Missouri, and Abraham Lincoln School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Dr. Edwards’s teaching career included employment in urban school settings in St. Louis, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  After dedicating years to classroom instruction, she earned a Master of Education Degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership from Wilmington University in Wilmington, Delaware. 

Dr, Lanette R. Edwards is a resident of Hockessin, Delaware, a wife, and a proud mother of four. She cherishes her marriage to her college sweetheart who shares her love for history, music, and traveling. She is the curator and historian of Hockessin Colored School #107C, the judicial bedrock of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Dr. Edwards embarked upon creating Riddles and Wise in 2020 to pay homage to her ancestors and unearth their historical treasures. In 2023, she partnered with Arcadia Publishing and released the book - Hockessin Colored School #107C (Images of America Series), about the rural Delaware schoolhouse that shaped the trajectory of education in America.