advisory board

The Out(sider) Preservation Initiative advisory board consists of thought leaders, activists, and descendant community leaders, supports the project’s action plan, grant processes, and strategic funding sustainability.

At least 30% of the board comprises descendants of historic Black settlements to ensure their voices shape key decisions.

  • Ashley Adams, Black Reparations Project

    Natearah Austin, Washington County Center for African American Heritage and Culture

    Alison Booth, University of Virginia

    Julian Chambliss, Michigan State University

    Lareatha Clay, Shankleville Historical Society

    Nedra Deadwyler, Nedra Deadwyler Consulting

    Portia Hopkins, Rice University

    Jessica Marie Johnson, Johns Hopkins University

    Sue Mobley, Monument Lab

    Justin Reid, Charlottesville Charitable Foundation

    Thaisa Way, Dumbarton Oaks, Garden and Landscape Studies

Ashley Adams

Julian Chambliss

Portia Hopkins

Justin Reid

Natearah Austin

Lareatha Clay

Jessica Marie Johnson

Thaisa Way

Alison Booth

Nedra Deadwyler

Sue Mobley

freedom visionaries

The Freedom Visionaries serve as key thought partners to Dr. Andrea Roberts, helping bring her visions to life and ensuring they are realized through the Out(sider) Preservation Initiative.

Maia Butler

Christy Hyman

michelle Lanier

danielle Purifoy

J.T. Roane

the OPI Team

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the OPI Team *


  • OPI Director

    Dr. Roberts leads the Mellon Foundation-supported Out(sider) Preservation Initiative. She is an associate professor of urban and environmental planning and Director of the Center for Cultural Landscapes Director (CCL) at the University of Virginia. A scholar-activist and descendant of freedom colony founders, she created The Texas Freedom Colonies Project Atlas to preserve Black places through community storytelling and participatory mapping. Dr. Roberts is completing a book on her collaborations with Outsider Preservationists who lead historic preservation projects within historic Black settlements. 


  • Project Associate

    Daniele Rose Dixon is a Project Associate for the Out(sider) Preservation Initiative at the Center for Cultural Landscapes. She considers her work as a historian, racial justice worker, and heritage conservationist inextricably linked to her historic preservation work in Texas. Ms. Dixon continues the community engagement and ethnographic research of The Texas Freedom Colonies Project and facilitates the expansion of The TXFC Project to California.. Daniele will manage resources and support for our OPI grantees.