MAAV Team

Co-Director
kmpowell@vt.edu

Katrina M. Powell is Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on displacement narratives and research methodologies. Her books include The Anguish of Displacement: The Politics of Literacy in the Letters of Mountain Families in Shenandoah National Park (2007), Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research (2012), Identity and Power in Narratives of Displacement (2015), and Beginning Again: Stories of Migration and Movement in Appalachia (2024). She also edits the journal Roots and Resettlement and the University of Virginia Press book series, Dis(place)ment, Migration, and Social Justice.

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Co-Director
satterwhite@vt.edu

Dr. Emily Satterwhite is Director of Appalachian Studies, Professor in the Department of Sociology, and Diggs Endowed Professorial Chair in the Humanities at Virginia Tech. Her current research centers on community-engaged knowledge production grounded in the histories, societies, and cultural representations of Appalachia. Dr. Satterwhite is the author of Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878 (UP of Kentucky, 2011). She is a volunteer with climate justice organizations, including POWHR (Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights).

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Project Coordinator
ltrice@vt.edu

Lauren is a passionate community planner and architectural historian. She has managed grant programs, led planning projects, and developed award-winning strategies for community engagement. Her work strives for authentic community engagement emphasizing the power of place. Lauren has experience across the country and deep roots in Appalachian Virginia. Lauren is eager to explore how people of all ages define their community and decide what stories need to be told in the public realm.

Lauren holds a B.A. in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the Board of Directors for YEP! Youth Engagement Planning and a leader of the American Planning Association Urban Design & Preservation Division.

Sarah is a Cultural Studies and Performance Studies Scholar interested in the relationship between people and things in the shifting context of place with a special interest in art objects, memory objects, and public history places. She teaches in the Appalachian Studies Program at Virginia Tech where she prioritizes experiential and place-based instructional opportunities between students and community members. Sarah holds a Ph.D in Social and Cultural Thought from Virginia Tech, an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech, and a B.A. in English and Theater from Berea College.

Dr. Jacob Robinson is a Mellon Postdoctoral Associate teaching courses in Appalachian Studies and Sociology as a member of Virginia Tech’s Department of Sociology. Dr. Robinson specializes in the intersection of racial experiences in the unique spaces of Appalachia. His research is deeply rooted in exploring the complexities of identity within rural, mountainous spaces. Dr. Robinson’s previous work includes filling in as Radford University’s African American Studies Director and Graduate Research Assistant for Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia.

Cory is the Project and Communication Associate for MAAP, supporting projects through outreach, engagement, and research. He teaches in the Appalachian Studies Program at Virginia Tech. Cory holds a Ph.D. in Social, Political, and Cultural Thought from Virginia Tech, an M.S. in Strategic Communications, and a B.S. in Journalism from Radford University. With experience in digital, print, and radio media, he researches visual rhetoric, iconography, and vernacular creativity online. Current projects explore how Appalachia is re-imagined online, especially through cryptids and digital folklore. A native of Patrick County, Virginia, Cory is deeply connected to the region.

Jae De La Mora-Crow is a single mother of two children living in Radford, VA. She works as a freelance interpreter and is a passionate community advocate, currently sitting on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, the VOICES Leadership Council from the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, RADical Change Commission, Floyd Friends of Asylum Seekers and several other grassroots efforts in the area to help members of the community.

De La Mora was born in Mexico City and was raised there and in Washington D.C., but has been living in Appalachian Virginia since 2011. She has found the community to be very accepting, and has been struck by how misrepresented Appalachia is. Despite the failures of the system that she has seen towards the people of Appalachia, De La Mora is proudly raising her children here in the place she calls home.

Devair Jeffries-Lee is an artist-scholar with expertise in theatre, film, art, and education. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre Studies from Florida State University, and has conducted research utilizing critical race and Black feminist theories to analyze Black identity, stereotypes, racial violence, and representation in theatre, television, and film.

As the Arts@VT Program Director at Virginia Tech, she collaborates with various campus and community-wide entities including the Arts@VT Board, external partnerships, and undergraduate student ambassadors on arts initiatives including public art projects and special collections. As the Program Director for BGM (Black Girl Magic), she mentors a group of primarily Black women undergraduates and connects them to relevant opportunities across campus.

With cultural and biological roots in North Carolina, the heartland of Appalachian origin, Devair’s mentorship, research, and performance work has included fostering diverse spaces and illuminating intersectional identity at Virginia Tech and the surrounding community.

Paul Quigley is Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and the James I. Robertson, Jr. Associate Professor of Civil War History in the Department of History at Virginia Tech. He is author of Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-65, and is currently completing a book about Preston Brooks and cultures of violence in the U.S. before the Civil War. Quigley has contributed to collaborative public history projects such as an exhibit on Black Virginians in the age of emancipation at the American Civil War Museum-Appomattox and an augmented reality tour of a Civil War site near Petersburg. Quigley has gotten to know Appalachia through living in Blacksburg, traveling in the region, and especially through learning about its often overlooked history during the American Civil War era.

Jessica Taylor is a public historian and assistant professor at Virginia Tech. She is the director of the Center for Oral History, and is affiliated with the Diggs Teaching Scholar Association, and various research and teaching groups on campus. Growing up in the Piedmont nearby changed her appreciation of the Appalachian mountains, and a decade doing oral histories have shown her how the pitfalls and promises of tourism and resource extraction transform individuals' experiences in the region.

Kristy Vance is a shop steward for UFCW Local 400, President of the Western Virginia CLUW, Secretary-Treasurer for the Western Virginia Labor Federation and sits on the executive board of the Virginia State AFL-CIO.

Born and raised in the rural community of Grayson County located in the Southwestern Virginia, her father and maternal grandmother taught her the value of heritage and history, particularly that of their family in the Appalachian area. For instance, her father shared with her how her great uncle started the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, and the role their family played in the development of Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia. Her grandmother taught her the troubles of the Indigenous peoples in the area once the “white man” began their journey west, and how their lives changed forever. It is because of them that she values history and believes it is important to pass it on to the next generation.

Evaluation Consultant

2023 Applied Arts Strategist & Researcher

Meranda Flachs-Surmanek (they/them) is an artist and urban planner driven by the belief that creativity is central to healthy lives and that telling stories brings us closer to knowing each other and ourselves. With over a decade of experience using the arts to facilitate cross-sector and cross-cultural collaborations, they collaborate with people to understand complex systems, re-orient themselves to places, engage in group decision-making, connect through story, and work across conflict.

Meranda co-designs projects aligned with community-defined goals, ranging from documentary theater and walking tours to workshops, archival initiatives, toolkits, curriculum development, and strategic planning. Their collaborations span organizations like Ping Chong + Company, teaching at Virginia Tech's Center for Communicating Science, and a research affiliation with the University of Florida's Center for Arts in Medicine to promote partnerships among activists, artists, community developers, and public health experts. Meranda has received recognition as a Visiting Fellow at Skidmore College’s Storytellers’ Institute and is a current Forefront Fellow with the Urban Design Forum. For more information, you can visit their website at merandissime.com.

Marianne Hawthorne is the Office Administrator for the Center for Rural Education and the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies. She has worked at Virginia Tech in Fiscal Operations since 2001. She spent 17 years with the Center for Power Electronic Systems as Fiscal Tech and Administrative Assistant to the Center Director and five years at the National Security Institute and Hume Center as a Senior Fiscal Tech. She received her BS in Business from Radford University. Marianne came to the New River Valley for college and has stayed in the area ever since.

Mariam (she/her) is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator at Virginia Tech Publishing. With an interdisciplinary background in journalism, audiovisual creation, graphic design, advocacy, and communication, she is passionate about leveraging diverse mediums and new technologies to foster innovative, community-centered scholarship. Mariam's work involves empowering students, faculty, and community partners to build confidence in the creative process while supporting the development of digital exhibits, storytelling projects, and interactive scholarship. Committed to driving positive social change, she integrates multimodal approaches to amplify impact, promote accessibility, and enhance community engagement.

Matthew Pickett is a life-long resident of Southwest Virginia, Film and TV Production company owner, and Instructor at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

Matthew has worked in the film and television industry for over 10 years as a production coordinator, manager, cinematographer and producer. As a production company owner, Matthew has filmed multiple documentary shorts telling Appalachian stories in both Virginia and West Virginia.

As an Instructor at UVA Wise, Matthew connects rural students to a variety of professions within the field of film and Television as a way to help empower and encourage the future of Appalachian storytellers in a variety of media landscapes.

Marti Wagnon is a technical/social communicator and Appalachian scholar located in the Giles County, Virginia. After completing her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Writing from Virginia Tech, Marti now serves as the Communications Coordinator for Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia (MAAV) and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS). She also teaches Appalachian Studies at Virginia Tech, and her research areas are Appalachian Rhetoric, Community Engagement, and Technical Communication. Because Marti has spent her whole life here in the New River Valley, she considers herself an avid Hokie fan as well. Go Hokies!

Founder and Owner of Twin Coves Media, LLC
jen@twincovesmedia.com

Jen is an Experience Designer dedicated to helping individuals, teams and businesses tell their stories with digital experiences that are engaging and intuitive. She has worked in usability design for 2 decades and has created and contributed to websites for every industry, including non-profit, the arts, history, and community development as well as healthcare, technology, and more. She is based out of rural Pulaski County, VA.

Macie is a History Major from Tazewell, VA. As an advocate for rural students, she has served on multiple panels discussing the future of higher education. Macie is a leader in the Black College Institute which brings high school juniors and seniors to Virginia Tech during the summer. She likes music ,pant suits with Jordan 1s, and coloring in her free time. Macie's favorite portion of History is Modern American History. After college Macie plans on becoming a teacher and coach back home in Tazewell to help mold the minds of the future.

Christian Crawley is an undergraduate senior studying Landscape Architecture at Virginia Tech where he is set graduate in May 2025. In addition to his Landscape Architecture major, he is getting minors in Ecological Cities and in Appalachian Cultures and Environments. He spent his childhood growing up in the Roanoke Valley and is a proud alumnus of Salem High School where his younger sister and brother attend today. This year, he will be conducting a senior thesis project examining the role of storytelling methods in Black communities in the development of neighborhood designs through community-led visions of their sense of place.

Jamie Raczynski is an intern for MAAV working with both Communications for MAAV, as well as with the 23/54 project. She has lived in Southwest Virginia for most of her life and is currently a student at Virginia Tech studying History and Social Sciences Education. After graduation, she plans on becoming a high school history teacher somewhere in Virginia. She loves learning about and being involved in local Appalachian history, which is why she is so excited to be apart of MAAV, and its projects.

Sacil (suh-SEEL) Armstrong is a facilitator, writer, and coach who combines self-care and respect with facts to create equitable spaces. With a background in community relations and grassroots projects, Sacil leans into hard discussions that can lead to shifts in thinking and behavior. She works with individuals and organizations to move towards universal inclusion. That way marginalized groups don’t need accommodations because everyone belongs.

David Franusich is a transdisciplinary artist, designer, and creative technologist. He works at the intersection of the physical and the digital to create engaging artworks and immersive experiences. With a background in architecture, graphic design, and photography, his interest in so many aspects of art, design, music, and technology has brought him a diverse range of projects and collaborations—from public art installation creation and exhibit design, to film scoring, and cinematography and video production. David holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Technologies from Virginia Tech.

Brandy S. Faulkner, the Gloria D. Smith Professor of Black Studies at Virginia Tech, is also a collegiate assistant professor in the Department of Political Science. A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2012, Faulkner’s scholarship has focused on constitutional aFaulkner is an award-winning teacher, inspiring students to exceed their own expectations for learning, intellectual development, and personal growth. She teaches courses in public administration, constitutional law, administrative law, research methods, and the politics of race, ethnicity, and gender. She has supervised more than 10 undergraduate research students in the areas of law and judicial policy and administrative law, race and public policy, and critical organization theory.

Kevin is a practicing architect whose academic pursuits lie at the intersection of teaching, practice, and community engagement, and he has worked with both urban and rural communities on a variety of community-oriented impact design projects. His experience as a practitioner is diverse in type and scale and includes numerous adaptive reuse projects as well as housing, institutional, community, and cultural works. His design work has been recognized by the Preservation Virginia, the Urban Land Institute, and AIA Virginia, and he prefers white trace paper over yellow trace paper.

greg@greglilly.com

Greg Lilly is a writer, editor, painter, and strategic planner. He grew up in Bristol, Virginia. He’s the founder and past-president of the Williamsburg Book Festival. Today, in Abingdon, Greg serves as the chair of the Town of Abingdon’s Arts Commission and the Virginia Commission for the Arts’ Advisory Panel for Region 1. His focus for the region is expanding the arts for underserved communities, developing arts and entertainment districts, cultivating public art, and establishing municipality arts master plans.

Kate Skelley is an arts administrator, curator, and educator. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Practice and Armory Gallery Director at Virginia Tech in the School of Visual Arts. Kate holds an MA in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining Virginia Tech, she worked as Executive Director of the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation, Director of Programming at the Floyd Center for the Arts, and as Director of the University Art Galleries at the University of South Dakota where she managed two contemporary art galleries, the Oscar Howe Gallery, and the NPIAR Artist-in-Residence Program. Kate's experience also includes working at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum for 8 years where she held positions in both the Curatorial and Advancement Departments. Kate is committed to supporting and promoting artists in the Appalachian region and is passionate about the transformative impact the arts can have on communities.

Shaun Slifer is a multi-disciplinary artist, nonfiction author, and museum professional based in Pittsburgh, a city set inside the flexible cultural boundaries of both Appalachia (a name we call The Land and People) and the Rustbelt (a name we call What We’ve Done to The Land and People). His creative practice fundamentally investigates memory, directly challenging the oppression of currently-dominant historical narratives, both social and ecological.

Shaun regularly works in collaboration with artists and other specialists, and in collectively-structured groups. He has worked as the Creative Director at the award-winning West Virginia Mine Wars Museum since 2015. Shaun is a founding member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, and an original member of the now-disbanded Howling Mob Society. In 2022, he worked as the lead designer with the community-based public memory project Courage in the Hollers, part of Monument Lab’s 2022 Re:Generation cohort.

Ben was born and raised in Pulaski County and graduated from Radford University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance. He lives in the New River Valley with his daughter Rosalita and wife Priyam. In his spare time, he enjoys attending local events, outdoor activities, and spending time with his family.

Melody Warnick is the author of two books about thriving where you live: This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are, an exploration of the ground-breaking concept of place attachment, and If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Power of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World, a guide to how location-independent people choose where to live and how communities can attract and retain them.

Melody has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, Slate, Reader’s Digest, The Guardian, and many others, while her books have been featured in the likes of the New York Times, Time magazine, Fast Company, and Psychology Today. She’s also been a guest on many radio shows and podcasts, including NPR’s Life Kit and ABC Radio Australia.

A regular speaker about how residents can find and create happier communities, Melody lives with her family in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she works as a writer and communications specialist for Virginia Tech.