Participant Biographies

"We've Come This Far by Faith:" A Panel Discussion on Black Church History in Virginia's Historic Triangle

Moderator: Dr. Jajuan S. Johnson

Panelists: Mrs. Colette Roots, Reverend Carlon Lassiter, and Rondollyn Evans

Hampton Plantation, the Lynching of Howard Cooper, and the Freedom Trail: Centering Community and Creating Connections

Moderator: Nicholas M. Creary, Ph.D.

Panelists: Nancy R Goldring, Jennifer Liles, Amy S. Millin, MSW, MA

Nicholas Creary received his Ph.D. in African history from Michigan State University, his Masters in U.S. History from Catholic University, and his Bachelor’s degree in History and African Studies from Georgetown University. Additionally, he received a Masters in Higher Education Administration from Morgan State University. He served as Associate Provost for Academic Inclusion and Innovation and Associate Professor of History at Moravian University, and Associate Director of the Center for Diversity and Enrichment at the University of Iowa. Creary has published extensively in African and African American histories. He co-founded the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project and wrote the initial draft of H.B. 307 (2019) which established the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and serves as chair of the Reconciliation Committee.

Nancy R Goldring is president of the Northeast Towson Improvement Association, Inc. in historic East Towson, a descendant community of families formerly enslaved at Hampton Plantation by Maryland’s fifteenth governor. As a seventh generation resident of one of Baltimore County’s oldest African-American communities, Nancy’s ties to Hampton are confirmed back to 1791 by the Ridgleys’ meticulous records. Her great-great grandfather, James H. Williams, founded Mount Olive Baptist Church more than 135 years ago. Nancy’s family continues to serve and worship there today.

While Nancy holds a B.A. in Philosophy (Morgan State University) and an M.A. in Religious Studies (Howard University), she speaks from her lived experience and a commitment to protect and preserve her community's unique thread in the fabric of American history. The effort that best demonstrates East Towson’s history and resilience is the proposed Road to Freedom Trail. To learn more: https://www.historiceasttowson.org/freedom-trail.

Jennifer Liles is a Public Historian whose work focuses on the lives of Maryland residents. Her research includes the lives of industrial workers, nineteenth century immigrant populations and neighborhoods, local African-American community history, and other local history. She participated in projects such as the Vietnam Virtual Wall, a thorough history of Rosewood School and Hospital in Baltimore County, presentations at the National Council for Undergrad Research, and Civil War research for the National Park Service at Sharpsburg and Antietam.

Jennifer received her B.S. degree from Stevenson University in Public History in 2018 and a B.S. in Computer Science from Villa Julie College in 1998. Besides spending time with her three children and husband, she loves jazz, reading, gardening and her dogs. Her interests include Maryland history and local community history. In her spare time, she likes to research the families of friends and explore nature with her family.

Amy Millin previously worked with children and youth in Chicago and Philadelphia as a clinical social worker. So began a life journey of exploring what it means to be resilient, the role stories have in our lives, the strength of communities, and the power that results through partnerships. The journey led her back to graduate school where her research explored the intersection of cultural health, equity, and the use of public space. Amy is one of the founders and co-leaders of the Baltimore County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (MLMP) and serves on the MLMP Board. Her work is centered on the ways that community programming creates opportunity for conversation. An ongoing focus on exploring relationships between people, community, and place/space has led Amy to deepen her commitment to cultural partnerships and building understanding of the ways that historic patterns deeply impact today’s behaviors and community health.

Tangled Roots: Braxton Descendants Research Their Past and Discover Intersecting Black and White Family Threads

Moderator: Laura Hill, Coming to the Table-Historic Triangle and the Virginia Racial Healing Institute

Panelists: Viola O. Baskerville, B.A., J.D.; Gerry Gilstrop, MS, CPhT; Allison Thomas

Viola O. Baskerville is a Charter Member of AAHGS (Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society) Greater Richmond, Virginia Chapter. Genealogy has been her passion for over thirty-five years, tracing her Braxton lineage back to Robbin Braxton, an enslaved man born around 1785 in King William County, Virginia. She is a member of the National Society Descendants of America Farmers as well as the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage. Ms. Baskerville is a retired public official and currently serves as a Board Trustee of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.

Gerry Gilstrop descends from a Virginia colonial era manumitted man named Abram Braxton, Sr. Abram Braxton, Sr. became the progenitor of almost one thousand present-day descendants. Gerry’s interest in his ancestry was sparked by a late night journey with his maternal grandmother through King William County, Virginia at which time she recounted from memory her oral Braxton history. This narrative later served as a springboard to examining his own history as well as African American history in general. Gerry works as a healthcare consultant.

Allison Thomas descends from enslavers in colonial Virginia back to the early 1600s. She has researched and created a website for the Black descendants of the men, women and children who were run off Gwynn’s Island, Virginia in 1916. The website aims to connect descendants with their ancestors, many of whom were enslaved by Allison’s family. Allison volunteers in numerous capacities for Coming to the Table (CTTT), including co-facilitating the local group in Los Angeles, California for seven years, and co-managing the BitterSweet blog. She was a founding member of CTTT-Richmond (now Coming Together Virginia). Allison has spent her career as a film and theater producer and public relations consultant.

A Game Plan to Set the Record Straight on Black History in America

Panelists: Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr. and Peter Gunter Dunnaville

Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr., is one of the most prominent attorneys in Virginia. He was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York by Robert F. Kennedy, and served as Senior Attorney for AT&T. He has worked for many years as a Civil Rights Attorney, and for equal justice under law. Dunnaville is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and has been named as a Virginia Leader in the Law. In March 2022, he was selected to the Virginia Lawyers’ Hall of Fame. He is the author of many articles on Civil Rights and Social Justice and is the recipient of numerous awards for his public service, including the Diversity Award of the Virginia State Bar, which is named in his honor. In 2018, he received the commendation of the Virginia General Assembly, “for his exceptional achievements as an attorney, and as a Civil Rights advocate.”

Peter Gunter Dunnaville is a Legal Consultant and Historian. He is a history graduate of the University of Virginia, and a graduate of the College of William and Mary’s School of Law. He also holds a Master of Laws degree, in Environmental Law, from Golden Gate University. He has worked as a legal associate of his father, Clarence M. Dunnaville, Jr., for many years, and as a Magistrate for the Virginia State Courts. Recently he has worked with his father in preparation of a history of their family over 400 years, and their family’s roles in establishing and implementing slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow, the “One Drop Rule” and Massive
Resistance in America.

The father and son pair have previously made presentations at the annual Lemon Project symposiums.

African American Churches, Cemeteries, and Documentary Records of Black Virginians

Moderator: Hannah Rosen, Ph.D.

Panelists: R. G. A. "Trey" Ferguson III, M.Div.; Christopher S. Hunter, Ph.D.; Timothy Case; Lydia Neuroth

R. G. A. “Trey” Ferguson III is a minister at the Refuge Church in Homestead, FL, writer, and co-host of the podcast Three Black Men: Theology, Culture, and the World Around Us. He graduated from the University of Miami with majors in Communication (Electronic Media) and Theater Arts before pursuing formal theological training through graduate studies. A proud graduate of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University (where he obtained his Master of Divinity), his academic passions include Black Church history, and the roles that American church traditions have played in shaping the United States from the antebellum period through the Civil Rights Movement. He is proudest of his wife and three children who serve as a testimony to the fruits of that history and the theologies he has committed himself to exploring.

Christopher Hunter was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati, a Master of Science, and a PhD in Architecture, both from Texas A&M University. His research focus is the study of the socio-cultural influences upon the design and construction of early African American church buildings built from 1800 to the 1920s. Dr. Hunter has presented a number of papers on his research and has been published on a number of platforms. He serves on the Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Starkville, MS., and has led an effort in the School of Architecture at Mississippi State University to create a historic preservation minor program. Dr. Hunter is an Assistant Professor of architecture at MSU, where he teaches various design studios as well as lectures on historic preservation and the history of architecture from the 18th century to today.

Tim Case is a PhD Candidate in the History department at William & Mary. He received his B.A. in Cultural Studies at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. He holds M.A.s in History from San Jose State University and William & Mary, as well as an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Santa Clara University. His research interests include Civil War memory and the memory of emancipation with a specific focus on the intersection of faith, race, and space in the post-war South. He is particularly interested in late nineteenth and early twentieth century African American commemorative traditions and the role of cemeteries as sites of contestation and politics. Before returning to school in the Fall of 2020, he was a high school history teacher and administrator for more than fifteen years.

Lydia Neuroth currently serves as the Project Manager for Virginia Untold at the Library of Virginia. She has her Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Virginia and her Masters of Science in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has worked as a historic interpreter for Preservation Virginia in Richmond, Virginia and as a research associate at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia where she focused her research contributions towards the interpretation of the sites’ enslaved histories. She has worked for the Southern Historical Collection at UNC Chapel Hill where she built tools for researchers specifically around records of slavery. Lydia’s experience working in public service provides her with a user-focused framework for approaching archival and digital projects. She is committed to partnering with communities to uncover and share a more inclusive story of the past.

Where Do We Go From Here?: A generational discussion of The Reservation Experience

Moderators: Johnette Weaver and Lisa Preston

Panelists: Antoinette Anderson; Yvonne Johnson; Kristen Allen; Eric Anthony Glover; Sydni Washington

All panelists are members of the Hundley family and/or the Hundley History Committee (HHC) of York County, Virginia. Established in 2012, the HHC works tirelessly to reveal the Reservation’s hidden history. Our efforts include engagement with state, local and federal officials, including the City of Newport News, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR), the US Congress, and the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. We are also partners of William and Mary’s Lemon Project and Village Initiative.

The HHC is committed to leveraging the rich history and untold stories of the Reservation families and descendants. In 2021, the committee successfully completed the DHR’s rigorous application process for Historic Highway Markers, which resulted in the installation of a new marker dedicated to the Reservation in September, 2022. Recognizing that there is much more to know and celebrate, the HHC formed The Friends of The Reservation Charles Corner, an affiliate organization whose purpose is to collect, preserve, and showcase the stories of the Reservation’s residents and descendants.

Making A Living: Memory of Slavery, Community, and Businesses

Moderator: Mr. Harvey Bakari

Panelists: Dr. Marie Bakari; Mr. Willie Parker; Mrs. Deloris Parker

Dr. Marie Bakari is a board member of SOFAAH, a researcher, business tax consultant, and she works at National University as an Associate Director of Faculty Support and Development. In this role, she works with new and experienced faculty to ensure excellence in teaching through engagement in a fully remote environment. An entrepreneur and problem solver, she navigates across a complex enterprise system to manage processes related to student service. She is well-known for her research and work around diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice issues.

Willie Parker is a board member of the Society of Friends of African American History, a Williamsburg native, and a Colonial Williamsburg Foundation master printer retiree.

Deloris Parker is the secretary of the Society of Friends of African American History and a Williamsburg native with a career in public service.

Past Reflection, Forward Progress: Douglass School, Kokomo, Indiana

Panelists: Rev. Dr. William Smith; Sarah E. Heath, Ph.D.; Amy Russell

Sarah Heath is an Associate Professor of History at Indiana University Kokomo. She holds a BA in History from the College of Wooster (OH), and an MA and PhD from the University of Cincinnati. She has previously worked for the National Park Service on the Brown v. Board of Education historic site, and her research has focused on such topics as extremism, national desegregation debates, and other matters relating to educational debates, public policy, and the National Parent Teacher Association. She is the recipient of Indiana University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. She is most active in the community in her work with the Howard County Historical Society, and the Douglass School Committee.

Reverend Doctor William J. Smith, Jr., is the Senior Pastor of the historic Second Missionary Baptist Church in Kokomo, IN. He also serves as the President of Embracing Hope of Howard County, IN and project coordinator for the Douglass School restoration. Pastor Smith has been instrumental in social justice work in the community ensuring that all people of Howard County/Kokomo are represented. His work has been recognized by Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC, Calvin College, Morehouse College (the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel), and Wabash College Pastoral Leadership Program. Reverend Doctor Smith serves on several denominational, ecumenical, and community boards. He is in receipt of a B.A. and M.A. from Virginia University of Lynchburg, M.Div. from Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, IN, and D.Min. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH and possess several certificates in nonprofit leadership and proposal/grant writing.

Amy Russell began her 45-year career at the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library as a Bookmobile Librarian. She spent several years as a special librarian for metallurgical company Haynes International before returning to KHCPL as Head of the Genealogy and Local History Department. The department draws people as far away as California to New Jersey, and Minnesota to Florida. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Media Science from Purdue University and a Master of Library Science from Indiana University. She has a passion for local history and family history research. Her work with the Douglass School Committee has allowed her to explore new techniques for gathering and archiving the history of the African-American community.

Illuminating the Black Communities Displaced by Colonial Williamsburg: The Case of Nicholson Street

Moderator: Amy Quark, Ph.D.

Panelists: Jacqueline Bridgeforth Williams; Anthony Conyers Jr.; Yvonne Tabb Alston; Dennis Gardner; Breyonna Rock; Christine Jordan; Monika Gosin

Jacqueline Bridgeforth Williams is founder and director of The Village Initiative, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that advocates for equity and racial justice in the Williamsburg-James City County Schools. The Village Initiative was founded in 2016 and began its focus on community outreach and policy advocacy. In 2019, The Village Initiative launched The Local Black Histories Project to center the role of the descendant Black community in producing knowledge about Black histories in the greater Williamsburg area. Directed by a board of leaders from the Black descendant community, the Local Black Histories Project offers an open-access, online archive of oral histories, community forums, films, and curated exhibits that illuminate the experiences of local Black communities. The Project encourages the community to explore and contribute to these resources and works in partnership with local educators to integrate these resources into their classrooms.

Anthony Conyers Jr. is a native of Williamsburg and has been a resident for all but twelve of his seventy-five years. He is a graduate of Bruton Heights School in Williamsburg and attended West Virginia State University where he graduated with a degree in Political Science with minors in Philosophy and Military Science. He is former US Army Officer who served a tour in Vietnam. In thirty years with the James City County Government, he held increasingly responsible positions leading to appointment as Manager of Community Services, which he held until 2005. He was appointed Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services by then Governor Mark Warner and served in that position until 2010 at the end of the Kaine Administration. Spending his formative years in the cradle of American Democracy had a profound impact on his world view and his decision to spend his life in public service.

Yvonne Tabb Alston resided at 449 Nichcolson Street alongside her mother and father, John and Edna Tabb, and her younger brother, John Jr., affectionately known by his family as Bubba. She joined First Baptist Church at a young age. During her formative years, she attended Mrs. Gerst's Kindergarten in Braxton Court. She then spent 1^st through 6^th grade at Bruton Heights Elementary School. Yvonne’s family later moved to Carver Gardens in York County, where she attended Fredrick Douglas for 7^th grade and James Weldon Johnson during her High School years. After graduation, she was accepted into Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC. She later received her BS in Early Childhood Education from Bowie State University. She completed her graduate studies in Special Education at George Washington University and Coppin State University. She then went on to teach for Prince George County Public Schools until her retirement in 2014. She continues to reside in Largo, Maryland, and is very involved in her local community as an active member of her Neighborhood Civic Association, The League of Women Voters, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. She can often be found caring for her aging neighbors. She was married to Thomas Alston for 38 years. Together they raised 6 children, and she now enjoys interacting with her 4 grandchildren.

Dennis Gardner was born and raised on Nicholson Street in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was elected to the York County Board of Supervisors in 1991 and was the first Black person to serve in this capacity since Reconstruction. Mr. Gardner's long career has included positions with People's Building and Loan in Hampton, Crown Savings Bank in Newport News, and Williamsburg Restoration, Inc. In 1972, he joined the staff of Anheuser-Busch as area coordinator for North Carolina and parts of Virginia and later became supervisor of inventory management for the Williamsburg facility. Mr. Gardner has been a leader in the community. He was the founder and first president of the Williamsburg Men's Club and the A&T State University Alumni Association chapter in Williamsburg. He has served on the board of directors for the Williamsburg Area Recreation Association, as president of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity-Williamsburg chapter, and as member of the Williamsburg Advisory Board for Adult Education, the York County Advisory Board for Vocational Education and the York County Planning Commission. Mr. Gardner is also dedicated to his church, the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, where he has served as trustee and business manager.

Breyonna Rock is a junior at William & Mary from Hampton, VA. She is studying pre-med with a minor in Sociology. She has been a Research Fellow for the Local Black Histories Project since the summer of 2021.

Monika Gosin is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Latin American Studies Program at William & Mary. Her research and teaching focus includes Latinx and Africana studies, race and gender in popular culture and media, and interminority relations. She is the author of The Racial Politics of Division: Interethnic Struggles for Legitimacy in Multicultural Miami (Cornell University Press, 2019). Her further work on Black and Latinx crossings has also been published in edited volumes such as Una Ventana a Cuba y los Estudios Cubanos (Ediciones Callejon, 2010) and Afro-Latinos in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas (Palgrave, 2016), as well as in journals such as Latino Studies and Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal. Her research and writing has been supported by several awards, including an inaugural postdoctoral fellowship in the Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South at Duke University.

Amy Quark is a Professor of Sociology at William & Mary. Her research and teaching focuses on the capacity of civil society to enact social change. Her current research is dedicated to supporting The Village Initiative’s Local Black Histories Project, which offers an open-access, online archive of oral histories and curated exhibits that illuminate the experiences of local Black communities. She also oversees the Social Justice Policy Initiative’s Community Fellows Program, which places W&M students in internships to learn from and support Black-led non-profit organizations in the greater Williamsburg area. Through her earlier work on global inequities, she authored an award-winning book, Global Rivalries: Standards Wars and the Transnational Cotton Trade (University of Chicago Press, 2013) and numerous peer-reviewed articles on the contemporary trade rules and regulations that reinforce global inequalities produced through slavery and colonialism.

Celebrating Simms, Oral Histories, and Community Storytelling: Toward a Collaborative Practice for Polyvocal Black Historical Recovery

Moderator: Dr. Mollie Godfrey

Panelists: Mayor Deanna Reed; Dr. Leonard Richards; Dr. Mary Beth Cancienne; L. Renée

Mollie Godfrey is Associate Professor of English and African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at James Madison University. A widely published scholar and editor of two books, Conversations with Lorraine Hansberry and Neo-Passing: Performing Identity after Jim Crow, Mollie has also coordinated and co-directed numerous Black archival projects, including Celebrating Simms and the Furious Flower Archive: A Prototype.

Deanna Reed was sworn into office for Harrisonburg City Council on January 3, 2017, and then selected by her fellow council members as mayor. Becoming mayor (of her hometown) Harrisonburg made her the first African American female mayor in Harrisonburg’s history. In addition to holding numerous offices on boards and in organizations in Virginia, Mayor Reed also serves as the Vice President and Director of Partnerships for On the Road Collaborative, a non-profit youth empowerment organization that serves more than 300 middle school and high school youth annually. Mayor Reed was recognized by the Virginia Library of Congress as one of the Strong Men and Strong Women of Virginia History. She was featured in Essence Magazine on the top 100 WOKE list. And she was recognized by Harrisonburg-Rockingham County Commonwealth Attorney Marsha Garst as Citizen of the Year in 2015.

Leonard L. Richards Jr. is Assistant Professor in James Madison University’s College of Education. He graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Arts in History with minors in Africana Studies, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, and Secondary Education in 2013 and a Master of Arts in Teaching in 2014. He has taught social studies for over seven years at Waynesboro High School in Waynesboro, Virginia, and completed his Ed.D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations at Vanderbilt University, conducting research focused on recruiting and retaining faculty of color.

Mary Beth Cancienne is professor of English education at James Madison University in the Middle and Secondary Education Department in the College of Education. She teaches courses in high school English methods and accompanying high school practicum, Curriculum and Co-Curriculum, Foundations of American Education, student teaching, and seminar. In 1999, she co-founded the Arts and Inquiry in the Visual and Performing Arts in Education SIG with the American Education Research Association. Among other publications, she has published in such academic journals as the Virginia English Journal, Qualitative Inquiry, Theory into Practice, the Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, and the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing.

L. Renée is the Assistant Director of Furious Flower Poetry Center and Assistant Professor of English at James Madison University. Her Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets-nominated work has been published in Tin House Online, Poet Lore, the minnesota review, Southern Humanities Review, Obsidian, Poetry Northwest, Water~Stone Review, and elsewhere. Fusing both the creative and various modes of the historical, L. Renée writes about Blackness, Appalachian culture, and the joys and complications of inheritance.

Listening to Elders: Family History, Local History, and Personal History

Moderator: TBD

Panelists: Carol Miller, Burnell Irby; Sheila K. Dodson; Ivey Kline; Valerie Alfisha Valentine

Carol Miller and Burnell Irby are descendant family and community historians. They have shared their work at the Lemon Project Spring Symposium on several occasions.

Sheila K. Dodson is a graduate student at Clemson University and is a doctoral candidate in the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design program. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Online Writing Instruction and a background in Professional and Technical Writing (Master and Bachelor of Arts) from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Sheila’s research interests include Slavery in the Americas, African American Archives, Genetic Genealogy, Narrative Recovery, Digital Rhetorics, and Publication. Her dissertation research investigates enslavement of Africans and their existence in the Americas, decolonization of archival and genetic research, and the ontological exile of African American/Black Voices. Encountering numerous brick walls throughout her research, Sheila’s goal is to achieve narrative recovery whenever possible, providing insights for ancestors with unknown oral or written histories.

Ivey Kline is a senior at Roanoke College majoring in History with a concentration in Public History. Her independent research has focused on Black midwifery and the power of the archives. She has worked at the Center for Studying Structures of Race for three years conducting archival research, co-creating the Genealogy of Slavery project, and as the archivist for the Maurice Berger Memorial Archive and Library. Additionally, she has worked as an archives assistant for the Roanoke College Archives, and as an intern at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Valerie Alfisha Valentine Born into a military family, she attended George Washington Carver and Lee Hall Elementary schools. She was the first African American female student to integrate Lee Hall Elementary School. She attended Warwick High School, but graduated Denbigh High School in 1969. She attended William & Mary summer school in 1972 and later went to Spelman College, earning a BA in Political Science. She took part in the Miss Hampton-Newport News Scholarship Pagaent in 1974. She retired from Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Management in 2009. Her hobbies include travel, reading, pilates, baking, yoga, golf, ballet, and cycling.

“Neat in their Cloaths”: Utilizing Material Culture to Expand Black Women’s Narratives

Moderator: Dr. Maureen Elgersman Lee

Panelists: Mrs. Hope Wright; Ms. Rachel Hogue; Mrs. Nicole Brown

Hope Wright was born in Newport News and raised in Hampton, Virginia. She began her career at Colonial Williamsburg in the third grade as a performer in the play On Mine Own Time and The Black Music Program. She was in the first class of African-American Junior Interpreters, which formed in 1984. She worked at Colonial Williamsburg steadily through grade school and after finishing high school she continued her work while attending William & Mary, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1997. Hope began full time employment at the foundation the next year as a historic interpreter with the African-American Historical Interpretations department and also as a character interpreter. She was in the first group of Actor-Interpreters hired in 2006 and continues with that department to this day. In her time at Colonial Williamsburg, Hope has been an actress, storyteller, writer, researcher, and mentor to new employees. She has collaborated with other departments in the foundation as well as with other museums, spoken at conferences and been a part of panels, been featured in Colonial Williamsburg’s Electronic Field trips, livestreams, the US: Past, Present, Future panels as well as the magazine Trend and Tradition (formerly CW Journal), and The William & Mary Alumni Magazine.

As the Bray School Lab's Graduate Assistant, Nicole Brown works directly with the Lab Director and the student volunteers who support the Lab's research and engagement projects. A Ph.D. candidate in American Studies, Nicole received her MA in American Studies from William & Mary in 2022. She has conducted research trips to the University of Oxford and Lambeth Palace Library to study the topics of religion, education, and slavery in Colonial Virginia, and her ongoing study of the Bray Associates and Black literacy in American history is a main focus of her current research.

In addition to her work with the Lab, Nicole works as a public historian that specializes in performing, researching, and interpreting women in Virginia spanning from 1750 to 1820. She has performed at a variety of historic and cultural sites, such as Monticello, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and the New York Historical Society. Currently, Nicole portrays Ann Wager for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and serves as one of their program managers. As the White teacher of the Williamsburg Bray School, Ann Wager’s role in the relationship between religion, slavery, and education is the center of her programming.

In her work as both a Bray School Lab Student Thought Partner and a summer intern in Colonial Williamsburg’s Millinery and Mantua-making trades, Rachel Hogue has worked as an undergraduate researcher both on campus and within the museum on the Bray School Records project and studies regarding the female Bray school students and the materiality of their labor and education. In addition to working at the Lab, Rachel is a junior at William & Mary studying History with a concentration in Public History and Material Culture through the NIAHD program. She also participates in public history on campus through her role as a Spotswood Society member.

Dr. Maureen Elgersman Lee is the Mellon Engagement Coordinator for African American Heritage and Director of the Bray School Lab at William & Mary. Over her career, Maureen has served institutions in Georgia, Maine, and Virginia and has been a tenured professor, a department chairperson, and a museum director. Maureen has produced numerous books and articles on various aspects of Black history in the United States, Canada, and the British Caribbean. Her current book project is a collection on the Williamsburg Bray School (1760-1774), to be co-edited by Nicole Brown and published by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2026.

Maryland and the World: A Roundtable Discussion about Truth and Reconciliation

Moderator: Susan Kern, Ph.D.

Panelists: Brenda Stone Browder; Julie Hawkins Ennis; Tuajuanda C. Jordan; Julia A. King; Laura E. Masur; Amy Speckart, PhD; Alan B. Taylor; William G. Thomas III

Brenda Stone Browder, author, publisher, and family historian is driven by her father’s words, “Know your family.” Browder spent countless hours researching the rich history of her Stone family of Virginia/Maryland/Kentucky. Her Journalism/Communications degree from Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, has led her to research and unlock the mysteries of her genealogy. After relocating from Ohio to Maryland she finds herself right in the midst of her untold and hidden family history.

Browder, chairperson for her Stone family’s 83rd annual reunion and member of the family Genealogy Team, organized and sponsored the 2022 reunion held at Thomas Stone National National Site, Port Tobacco, Maryland. The reunion location was prompted by the Team’s discovery of their family’s DNA connection to Governor William Stone, ancestor of Thomas Stone, Signer of the Declaration of Independence. She continues the research of her family’s true diverse history.

Julie Hawkins Ennis is a native of Southern Maryland and is descended from early people of Maryland. She is a Southern Maryland History consultant, having assisted with Southern Maryland history projects and oral histories with Maryland University, Maryland county governments and grant research projects. She founded the Facebook page, "Family Reunion: Southern Maryland People…Our Connections and History." Raised as a Catholic, her mother’s family is from St. Mary’s County and her father’s family is from Charles County. Her heritage includes African, European, and Native American ancestry. Ennis is a graduate of Old Dominion University.

Tuajuanda C. Jordan, president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland since 2014, was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in Science Education in 2018 and one of the top twenty-five women in higher education by Diverse Issues in Higher Education in 2017, among other honors. After earning a B.S. in Chemistry from Fisk University and a PhD in biochemistry from Purdue University, Jackson taught and held administrative positions at Xavier University of Louisiana and Lewis & Clark College in Oregon prior to coming to St. Mary’s.

Susan Kern is an historian and author who studies early American history and how museums and historic sites use that history. She holds a Ph.D. in early American history from William & Mary and an M.A. in architectural history from University of Virginia. She is author of the award winning book The Jeffersons at Shadwell (Yale 2010).

Julia A. King, Professor of Anthropology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, specializes in historical archaeology and Chesapeake history and culture. The American Association of State and Local History recognized her book, Archaeology, Narrative, and the Politics of the Past: The View from Southern Maryland (University of Tennessee Press, 2012) with its Award of Merit. In 2018, King became one of the youngest recipients of the Society for Historical Archaeology’s J.C. Harrington Award for scholarly contributions to the discipline. King served for nearly a decade as an Expert Member on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a Federal agency that advises the president and Congress on matters of national historic preservation policy. A graduate of the College of William and Mary, King holds a Master’s in Anthropology from Florida State University and a PhD in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.

Laura E. Masur is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Catholic University of America with a research focus on the archaeology of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania from 1600 to the present. In a new website, Still, We Speak: Community Archaeology and Jesuit-Enslaved Ancestors, Masur provides public access to archaeological research about Jesuit plantations, including narrative accounts, photographs, and 3D-scanned images. Masur has worked with Colonial Williamsburg, Alexandria Archaeology, the Fairfield Foundation, Historic St. Mary’s City, and the Smithsonian Institution. Masur earned a B.A. in History and Anthropology from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. in Anthropology from William and Mary, and a Ph.D. from Boston University's Archaeology Program and Department of Anthropology.

Amy Speckart is an independent scholar and Assistant to the Director of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. Author of a new Historic Resource Study of Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Speckart is collaborating with Brenda Stone Browder and Alan B. Taylor to create an inclusive national semiquincentennial commemoration near the site in 2026. A 2004 NHPRC Fellow in Historical Documentary Editing with the Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University, Speckart has been a researcher, writer, and editor with numerous museums and cultural heritage organizations, including the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the National Trust of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Speckart holds a M.A. in History from Harvard University and a PhD in American Studies from the College of William and Mary.

Alan B. Taylor has a wide range of interests, however, he is most noted as a historian. As a researcher, Taylor is part of the Stone Family of Madison County, Kentucky, Genealogy Team. Since 2015 he has dedicated his free time seeking family information surrounding their origin and migration into Kentucky. His quest has unlocked countless colonial connections to Pennsylvania, Virgina, North Carolina and Maryland that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Originally from Springfield, Ohio, Taylor currently lives in Dallas, Texas. A graduate of Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, and Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana, Taylor is a retired Army Civil Engineer Officer and a three-time Afghanistan combat veteran.

William G. Thomas is the Angle Chair in the Humanities and Professor of History at the University of Nebraska. Honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and several teaching awards, Thomas is the author of A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War (Yale University Press, 2020), about enslaved families in Maryland who sued for their freedom after the American Revolution. The website, O Say Can You See: Early Washington, D.C., Law & Family, offers free access to archival research for the book. Thomas also produces documentary films, including Anna (2018) and The Bell Affair (2022). After earning an M.A. and PhD in History from the University of Virginia, Thomas co-founded and directed the Virginia Center for Digital History at UVA.

Navigating Black Culture Today: Disability, Safe Spaces, Publication Education, and Preservation

Moderator: TBD

Panelists: Robert Monson; Gabrielle Kubi, Hyeri Mel Yang, Mara Johnson, Jamaal S. Matthews; Dr. Gregg Suzanne Ferguson; Frederick Gooding, Jr.

Robert Monson is a recent graduate (with honors) of United Theological Seminary in MN. His public work includes writing for various outlets, hosting two podcasts Three Black Men and Black Coffee and Theology, and doing scholarship at the intersection of race, disability, religion, and gender.

Gabrielle Kubi is a doctoral student in the University of Michigan’s Combined Program in Education and Psychology. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Human Development with minors in Education and Inequality Studies. Gabrielle participated in the Program for Research on Youth Development and Engagement, community-engaged translational research program partnered focused on cultivating positive youth development within New York State 4-H programs. She is interested in the development of intersectional awareness among Black girls and women; as well as young Black people’s development of a critical consciousness as they navigate educational institutions; and how young Black people form their conceptions of race as they develop and navigate in the aforementioned ways. Gabrielle also investigates how educational spaces can be reimagined to further support such development and conceptions.

Dr. Ferguson is the Founder of Mothers of Diversity America and Director of its "Just Names" project working across the country to eradicate the symbolic violence of public school names honoring white supremacy and the Confederacy. With over twenty years of experience working with diverse populations in educational and government settings, Dr. Ferguson served as an administrator, educator and counselor. Her work has been in the public and private sector writing and analyzing educational and employment policies with practical application from law and psychology. She is a director for a federal program at Hampton University with articles published in the Washington Post, Richmond Free Press, Charleston Gazette, and the Southern Poverty Law Center periodical, Teaching Tolerance. She holds a BA in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University, and a MA in School Counseling and EdD in Leadership Studies from Marshall University.

Frederick Gooding, Jr. (PhD, Georgetown University) is an Associate History Professor and the Dr. Ronald E. Moore Endowed Professor of the Humanities at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. Featured in national publications such as New York Times and USA Today, Dr. Gooding critically analyzes image within mainstream culture and engages audiences on racial patterns "hidden in plain sight." Gooding also served as the Leonard A. Lauder Visiting Senior Fellow for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC the summer of 2021.

Mending the Fork in the Road at the Forks of Cypress

Moderator: Brian Murphy

Panelists: Karen Curry; Frederick Murphy; Tamisha Sales

Brian Murphy is the site director of both the Florence Indian Mound Museum and Pope’s Tavern Museum in Florence, Alabama. Brian teaches Intro to Public History at UNA and currently serves as the chairman of the Florence Historic Preservation Commission.

Karen Curry is a former educator and family genealogist. Karen's main area of research include death records and cemeteries of the formerly enslaved and their descendants. Karen is a descendant of Ferdinand Jackson, a formerly enslaved human at the Forks of Cypress.

Frederick Murphy is a documentarian and mental health therapist. He is a board member of the Slave Dwelling Project, James K. Polk Historic Site, TN AA Historical Research Group, and Forks of Cypress Descendant.

Tamisha Sales is the co- founder of Educational and Community Strategies and a veteran nonprofit professional with over 15 years of working in diverse communities to address the consequences of poverty. As a Ph.D. candidate, her research focus is equity and inclusion, the intersectionality of identities, and the Black experience inside organizations. Tamisha is a descendant of Richard Jackson.

Feeding Minds and Souls in Wake Forest, North Carolina

Panelists: Dr. Sarah A. M. Soleim; Joy Shillingsburg; Dr. Roxanne M. Johnson, Tenice Caudle

Dr. Sarah Soleim is a public historian with experience using history to facilitate community dialogue around slavery, monumentation, white supremacy, and voting rights. In her current role, she works with community members, students, and faculty to develop interpretive programming and research opportunities at Wake Forest University’s original campus in Wake Forest, NC. Much of her work advances Wake Forest University’s Slavery, Race, and Memory Project, an effort to recover, understand, and reckon with the university’s relationship to slavery and its legacies.

Joy Shillingsburg is an educator committed to teaching historical truths and how these truths have the power to liberate and transform our lives and society. Joy spent 15 years as a history teacher in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The nonprofit she founded, Wake Forest Community Table, serves fresh produce and 200 meals a week to those experiencing food insecurity and gathers diverse members of the community on a quarterly basis to discuss the history, institutions and systems that necessitate the community meal program. Joy collaborates with and connects churches, nonprofits, businesses and educational leaders to community members in order to reduce food insecurity and increase empathy and understanding of the causes of food insecurity. Joy earned her MS in History Education at Villanova University and lives with her family in Wake Forest, NC.

Dr. Roxanne M. Johnson earned her BA & MA from Case Western Reserve University and a Doctor of Psychology from Rutgers University. During the span of her 39-year career, she has served in the capacities of School Psychologist, Special Education Supervisor, Director of Special Education/Special Services for four urban school districts, Graduate School level Instructor, Program Developer and Evaluator, and Therapist. For the past four years she has been active in Beloved Community, a faith-based concept designed to heighten awareness of and reduce the impact of racial inequities in our communities. She has also worked with One Wake, another faith-based consortium dedicated to addressing social inequities through organized political actions. She has served as a Girl Scout leader, Sunday School teacher, a member of her Church’s governing board, literacy tutor and a parent advocate for urban youth.

Ms. Tenice Caudle is a commercial insurance professional and community leader in Wake Forest, North Carolina. She is a member of the Northeast Community Coalition and Wake Forest Community Table’s leadership team. Ms. Caudle’s community service falls at the intersection of food and housing security.

Honoring Authenticity: An Exploration of Undergraduate Student Research of Campus Iconography

Moderator: Abby Comey

Panelists: Lorielle Bouldin; Fatoumata Sissoko; Anabelle Midden; Julian Allison

Lorielle Bouldin is a fourth-year student at the College of William & Mary majoring in History. This is her second year as Co- Chair of the Committee of Contextualization of Campus Landmarks & Iconography and her third year participating in the committee.

Fatoumata Sissoko is a third-year student at the College of William & Mary majoring in Africana Studies and Government. This is her first year as Co-Chair of the Committee of Contextualization of Campus Landmarks & Iconography and her second year in the committee.

Annabelle Midden is a third-year student at the college of William & Mary majoring in History. This is her second year with the Committee for Contextualization of Campus Landmarks and Iconography and is serving as the Research chair.

Julian Allison is a senior majoring in Government and History at the College of William and Mary. This is his second year with the Committee for Contextualization of Campus Landmarks and Iconography, and this year he is serving as the Public Relations chair.

Life in the Reservation Community: Community-University Partnerships for Public Research

Moderator: Amy Quark, Ph.D.

Panelists: Mary Lassiter; Jacquelyn Gardner; Natalie Reid Mallory; Rosa Lee; Molly Robinson; Phoebe Linnell; Annaliese Santana

Mary Lassiter is a community historian and artist. She is the mother of two adult children and has 12 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Her ancestors lived in the Reservation community, and she is passionate about getting her ancestors history told. In addition to her leadership role in building an online exhibit illuminating the history of the Reservation, she has created a three-part artistic montage chronicling her family’s displacement and resilience, which was exhibited in 2020 at the Williamsburg Contemporary Art Center. She believes in the proverb, “live and let live.”

Jacquelyn Gardner is a descendant of Justice John A. “Tack” Roberts who lived in the Reservation community and served as the first Black Justice of the Peace in York County. She received a BS in Elementary Education in 1965 and an MA in Education and Administration in 1990, both from Hampton University. She served as a teacher in the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools from 1965 to 1972 and then as Director of the local Head Start program from 1972 to 2000. Mrs. Gardner has served in leadership roles in many organizations, including as President of The Virginia State Head Start Association (1990-95), and she was appointed to the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Education Programs by Governor Douglas Wilder in 1990. She has also served as a member of a wide range of organizations, including Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education (1969), Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (1978), Pre School Task Force - Williamsburg James City County School Board, Board of Supervisors and City Council (1996-2002), Williamsburg James City County Community Partnership and Excellence in Education (1992-94), First Baptist Church, Williamsburg, VA, NAACP (Life), Greater Williamsburg Women Association, LeCercle Charmant, Inc., Retired Teachers of Williamsburg/James City County, Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, St. John Baptist Church After school Tutorial Program, and The Village Initiative’s Local Black Histories Project Board (2021-present). She is married to Dennis Gardner and has two children.

Natalie Reid Mallory is a descendant of Nathaniel Reid Sr. and Nancy (Day) Reid who forged a life together in the Reservation community before their displacement by the U.S. government following World War I. She graduated from Virginia State College (now University) and continued her education to complete a Masters of Arts in History from William & Mary.

Rosa Lee is a retired public school social worker in the District of Columbia Public Schools. She has a love for history and considers herself an amateur historian. Her research into family history began in the early 1990's and included the help of her then pre-teen daughter, Nedra, who today is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, MA. Educationally, she attended the public schools in Williamsburg and received her BS degree at Virginia State University and a Master's Degree in Social Work from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the James Dent Walker Chapter of the AAHGS (African American Historical and Genealogical Society) in Washington, D.C. Rosa Lee is a descendant of the Lee, Holmes, and Taylor families who lived in the Reservation community. She has conducted in-depth research at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. on the U.S. government’s displacement of families from the Reservation. Her archival research led to the discovery and digitization of over 3600 pages of firsthand testimony from Reservation residents and over 300 photos of their homes, churches, schools, and other buildings.

Molly Robinson is a second-year PhD student in the American Studies Program at William & Mary. Her recent work focuses on the legal, environmental, and cultural aspects of placemaking and belonging in modern U.S. history, with a regional focus on the U.S. South. She seeks to understand how race and gender have historically conditioned familial, proprietary, and cultural attachments to place, and how those attachments conform to, or challenge, categories of ownership recognized within American legal thought. Her work draws on a range of methods, including archival research, oral history practice, and community-driven public history projects. Molly is particularly concerned with how public history can bolster movements that seek justice and rightful compensation for descendants whose ancestors suffered economic and political harm wrought by the U.S. government.

Phoebe Linnell is a junior at William & Mary from Boston, Massachusetts. She is majoring in sociology and minoring in history. Phoebe is interested in studying memory politics and how communities choose to remember or erase parts of their histories. This interest has buttressed her experience as a former intern for the Let Freedom Ring Foundation and a current research fellow for the Local Black Histories Project. Although she is currently studying abroad at Oxford University, she is excited to join the panel virtually and share what she has learned.

Annaliese Santana is a junior at William & Mary from Richmond, VA. She is majoring in Sociology. She has been a Research Fellow for the Local Black Histories Project since in the summer of 2022.

Historic Preservation, Property Rights, and Landscapes

Moderator: TBD

Panelists: Kelley Lemon; LaToya Gray-Sparks; Aysha S. Ames; Rachael Finch

Kelley Lemon is a licensed landscape architect and Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her teaching and scholarship build on community-engaged landscape and architecture design practices, with emphasis on historical and contemporary productive landscapes, neighborhoods, food, mental/behavioral health and wellbeing in the built environment.

LaToya Gray-Sparks is a graduate student in urban and regional planning at the Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Her research interests include urban history, historic preservation, housing policy and geographic information systems (GIS). In 2020, LaToya received international recognition for her story map titled, "Planned Destruction", which outlines the history of urban planning on Black residents in Richmond, Virginia. LaToya served as an Advisory Council member of Richmond 300 and currently serves as a Board member of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) and a Policy Advisory Committee member of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (H.O.M.E.). LaToya is currently interning as an Assistant Historian at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR), where she is working on projects that would increase the number of Black historic landmarks recognized in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Aysha Ames (she/her) is a Descendant of Ignatius (Nace) Butler, Jr., an enslaved person at Georgetown College. She is also a lawyer, scholar, and teacher. Currently, she is the Director of Legal Writing at Fordham Law School where she teaches the 1L legal writing course and helps develop the 1L and advanced legal writing curricula. Prior to teaching legal writing, she served as an attorney with the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights where she worked to ensure equal access to education and to resolve complaints of discrimination. Aysha is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law (J.D.), Rutgers University-Graduate School of Education (M.Ed.), and Rutgers College (B.A.).

Rachael Finch is the Senior Director of Preservation, Education & Advocacy for the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County. In her role, she leads all preservation, education, and advocacy initiatives. Finch holds an MA in Public History with emphases in Historic Preservation, Cultural Resource Management and Administration of Historical Organizations from Middle Tennessee State University, and a BA in History and Political Science from Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado. Finch appeared in several award-winning documentaries including The American South as We Know It, Desperate Days: The Last Hope for the Confederacy, and soon to be released Duality: A Collection of Afro Indigenous Perspectives. Finch currently sits on the boards of the Tennessee Preservation Trust, the Slave Dwelling Project, the Advisory Board of the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County, and the Franklin Equity Justice Coalition

The Power of Language: Clinical Perspectives of Systemic Narratives

Panelists: Kristie Norwood, PhD; Linia Willis, SLPD, CCC-SLP; Shana Matthews, M.A. CCC-SLP

Dr. Kristie Norwood is a licensed clinical psychologist at Hampton University where she is the Director of Student Counseling and a part time faculty member in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Norwood’s clinical work focuses on marginalized populations, with specific attention to trauma, posttraumatic growth and life transitions. Prior to joining Hampton University, she provided clinical care to military Veterans during her tenure as the PTSD team lead and the Assistant Chief of Psychology at the Hampton VA Medical Center. In her current role, she provides clinical care, administrative oversight and mentorship to Black college students. Dr. Norwood believes that she is called to help reduce the stigma of mental health, particularly in the Black community and she does so in both academic and clinical settings. In the face of adversity, she believes while you may not be responsible for being down, you are responsible for getting up.

Dr. Linia Willis is a speech-language pathologist at Hampton University where she is the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic Director and assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. Dr. Willis promotes medical speech pathology utilizing evidence-based practice through an interdisciplinary lens. She is passionate about helping people with swallowing disorders and neurogenic deficits. Her research interests and background include oral health and hygiene and meeting community reintegration challenges related to speech and language post COVID-19 in underserved communities. She brings her extensive clinical background from school-based, skilled nursing, mental health, and acute care settings into the academic setting. In her current role, she serves as a mentor to aspiring clinicians of color, in a discipline where 92% identify as white and female. Her favorite quote: “I am and always will be a catalyst for change.” - Shirley Chisolm

Shana Matthews is a dynamic speech-language pathologist with over thirteen years of clinical experience in schools and medical settings. As a clinical educator, she pioneered a teletherapy program during the pandemic and successfully mentored and supervised undergraduate and graduate students. She is an advocate for visibility, knowledge management, and equity in all spaces.