Sol was a citizen of the Cherokee Nation living in the Raven Bioregion of the Pacific Northwest and the traditional homeland of the Tlingit (Lingít Aaní). In 2009, he earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University’s Philosophy & Literature program, where he wrote his dissertation on practices of restorative and critical pedagogy. As an Associate Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Alaska Southeast, he taught courses in cultural studies, literary and critical theory, philosophy, and Critical Indigenous Studies in an interdisciplinary context. He published widely and served on the Editorial Advisory Boards for Public Philosophy Journal and the Criminal Justice and Philosophy book series. In Fall 2012, Dr. Neely started a prison education program in Juneau called The Flying University, which brings university students inside the local prison for mutual and collaborative study. During Summer 2019, while on sabbatical, Dr. Neely traveled the Trail of Tears with his daughter and father as three generations of Cherokee citizens. In 2020, Neeley became Associate Professor of English at Heritage University in Toppenish, Washington. A beloved educator everywhere he worked and a crucial member of the Outer Coast community in its formative years, Sol Neely unexpectedly passed away in 2022.