COMMISSION MEMBERS
Christy Coleman – CEO, American Civil War Museum
Co-Chair
Christy attended the College of William and Mary and completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Hampton University. In 1994, when she was director of African-American interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg, she drew international attention to a wrenching re-enactment of a slave auction that left the audience in tears.
Before she came to Richmond in 2008, she headed the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
Gregg Kimball – Library of Virginia Director of Education and Outreach
Author, “American City, Southern Place: A Cultural History of Antebellum Richmond”
Co-Chair
Ed Ayers – President Emeritus of the University of Richmond
Edward Ayers is President Emeritus of the University of Richmond, where he now serves as Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities. Previously Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia, where he began teaching in 1980, Ayers was named the National Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2003.
A historian of the American South, Ayers has written and edited 10 books. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In the Presence of Mine Enemies: Civil War in the Heart of America won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2013. He is also co-host of BackStory with the American History Guys, a nationally syndicated radio show and podcast.
Ayers has received a presidential appointment to the National Council on the Humanities, served as a Fulbright professor in the Netherlands, and been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Julian Hayter – University of Richmond (Leadership Studies)
Dr. Julian Hayter is a historian whose research focuses on modern U.S. history, American political development during the mid-20th century within the broader context of modern African American history, and the American civil rights movement.
His writing and research draws attention to mid-20th century voting rights in Richmond, Virginia and in the border South; the implementation of the Voting Rights Act; and the unintended consequences of African American political empowerment and governance post-1965.
Sarah Driggs – Author of “Richmond’s Monument Avenue” and serves on the City’s Public Art Commission.
Lauranett Lee, Ph.D
Lauranett teaches at the University of Richmond in two schools: The Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the School for Professional and Continuing Studies. She is also a 2017 Community Trustbuilding fellow in the Initiatives of Change/Hope in the Cities, an international organization engaged in racial healing and understanding.
Stacy Burrs
Black History Museum, Board of Directors
Coleen Butler Rodriguez
Coleen and her husband reside on Monument Avenue and she serves on the Board of Advisors of Historic Richmond, and on the Board of Trustees of the Roller-Bottimore Foundation. She has served as the president of the Fan Townhouse and Garden Club, and as a board member of the Monument Avenue Preservation Society.
Andreas Addison, City Council, 1st District
Kim Gray, City Council, 2nd District
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ADVISORS
Julie Langan, Director of the Department of Historic Resources
An experienced historic preservation professional and nonprofit administrator, Julie Langan has previously held leadership positions with both regional and local preservation nonprofits and two state historic preservation offices, Virginia and Arkansas. Ms. Langan held several positions with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and taught historic preservation at the University of Mary Washington College and Virginia Commonwealth University.
David Ruth, NPS Superintendent of Richmond National Battlefield Park at National Park Service
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CITY STAFF
Bobby Vincent, Director, Public Works
Ellyn Parker – Public Art Coordinator
Sam Schwartzkopf – Research Assistant