Laura Rosanne Adderley is a Associate Professor of History at Tulane University.

Chanelle Blackwell is a direct Descendant of Clotilda Survivor Areba Riggins, and is a proud member of the Clotilda Descendants Association. Chanelle earned a Juris Doctorate from American University’s Washington College of Law, and has over fifteen years of professional communications, public relations and fundraising experience. She has built a powerful professional and personal network amongst Washington DC's elite through her work in politics, media, and activism. She currently works in education and fundraising.

Regina Brayboy is a senior executive, civic leader, and writer whose work sits at the intersection of public history, community wellbeing, and institutional change. She brings a cross-sector perspective shaped by leadership across nonprofits, philanthropy, public service, healthcare, and cultural organizations. She is the author of the forthcoming children’s book Finding Young Charley, a work of historical fiction rooted in ancestral research and place-based memory. Regina also supports Kinfolkology’s Founding Executive Director as a Senior Advisor for Programs, Partnerships, and Sustainability.

A native of Plateau, Alabama, also known as Africatown, Darron is the great-great-grandson of Clotilda slave ship survivor “Kupollee,” one of the last 110 Africans to be illegally brought to America from Africa in 1860. He is the former President of the Clotilda Descendants Association (2019-2022), is serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Kinfolkology.

Charmaine Anderson Taylor is a proud descendant of Areba Riggins and member of the Clotilda Descendants Association. With over thirty years of experience in the healthcare and technology sectors, Charmaine currently serves as an engagement manager for a Fortune 200 tech organization. She graduated summa cum laude from Norfolk State University.

Jennie K. Williams, Ph.D. is a historian with expertise in American slavery and the domestic slave trade, digital methodologies, data and data ethics. She is the Founding Executive Director of Kinfolkology, an open archive, database collective, and collaborative community dedicated to remembering enslaved people as kin and kindred in full partnership with Descendant communities.

Jamelle Bouie is an opinion columnist for the New York Times.

Terry Burks is a family historian and genealogist. She serves as the Vice President of Black Pearls of Genealogy.

Blair LM Kelley, Ph.D. is a renowned author, historian, and scholar of the African American experience. She is the seventh president of the National Humanities Center, the only independent center for advanced study in the world dedicated exclusively to the humanities. Kelley previously held senior leadership roles at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of the American South and at North Carolina State University where she served as Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Affairs and Partnerships and the Alumni Graduate Professor of History.

Kelley’s best selling book, Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class (Liveright, 2023), interweaves the stories of her own ancestors into a sweeping chronicle of Black labor from slavery to the present. Black Folk has received the 2024 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award, 2024 Brooklyn Public Library Book Award, and the 2024 Philip Taft Labor History Prize and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in History. Her newest book, Black Freedom: A Visual History of Juneteenth and Emancipation Days, (out June 2, 2026) is the first fully illustrated history of Juneteenth and other Emancipation Day celebrations, told through photographs, art, and an engrossing narrative from an award-winning historian. 

A sought-after public intellectual, Kelley’s commentary has appeared on NPR’s Marketplace, Here & Now, and Fresh Air; and MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post and other national outlets. Kelley earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia in History and African and African American Studies, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Duke University.

Joseph McGill Jr., of Ladson, S.C., is founder of the Slave Dwelling Project. He was previously a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is the former executive director of the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and the former director of history and culture at Penn Center, St.

Frederick Murphy is the founder of History Before Us, LLC, a project centered on capturing, preserving and advocating influential history. His first film, the award-winning The American South as We Know It, explores the lives of survivors of Jim Crow—the courageous individuals who didn’t make the headlines. His second documentary, The Other Side of the Coin: Race, Generations & Reconciliation, was released on September 2, 2020. Mr. Murphy is also a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor.

Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy is the Descendant Project Researcher at the University of Virginia where she spearheads the study of the enslaved laborers who laid the university’s foundational stones. An avid genealogist for over 30 years, Dr. Shelley Viola Murphy, aka “familytreegirl,” was born and raised in Michigan and now lives in central Virginia.

Dr. Patricia Parker holds the Ruel W. Tyson, Jr. Distinguished Professorship Chair in the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a professor in the Department of Communication and director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Prior to taking on the role of IAH Director, she served as chair of the Department of Communication and director of the Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research.  From each of these leadership platforms, and through her scholarship and teaching, she has worked to advance the arts and humanities and the ideals of democracy, public service, and the pursuit of knowledge.

David Anthony Taylor is a family historian and the Founder & CEO of Black Pearls of Genealogy (BPOG), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and honoring the histories of the enslaved, the displaced, and the forgotten. Through BPOG, he has given communities both free research tools and lasting memorials that restore dignity and remembrance where silence once reigned.