Marquetta L. Goodwine, who is now officially Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, a native of St. Helena Island, South Carolina, is the official spokesperson for Gullah/Geechees. The Gullah/Geechee people organized and voted to establish her position along with the Wisdom Circle Council of Elders and Assembly of Representatives. They have their own constitution and flag. The Gullah/Geechee Nation begins in Jacksonville, North Carolina and extends southward to Jacksonville, Florida encompassing the Sea Islands and the Lowcountry. The South Carolina General Assembly honored and acknowledged Queen Quet's leadership via Resolution S. 1458.

Goodwine is the founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, the first organization to exist to work to protect the land, culture and rights of Gullah/Geechees, who continue to be forced out of their island and coastal homes due to development and economic pressures. In 1999 she became the first Gullah to speak before the United Nations, giving testimony at an April 1 hearing of the Commission on Human Rights in Switzerland. She has since been brought back to be a participant in the United Nations Forum on Minority Rights which was first established in 2008.
She is presently visiting professor at the University of Minnesota.