Chappell is a three-time University of Illinois Chicago alumna, with a bachelor's degree in Chemistry, an Ed.M. in Science Education, and a Ph.D. in Science Education. She is also a former Robert Noyce Master Teaching Fellow with Project SEEEC (Science Education for Excellence and Equity) in Chicago.

What does your research focus on? 

My primary line of research focuses on studying how arts-based research practices and pedagogies nurture and inform the understanding of Black students' science identities. I study the ways in which the arts, mostly focusing on dance, provide an avenue to explore identity construction in unbounded, soulful, and creative ways, thus more fruitfully supporting and exploring Black youth's science identity construction.