 My name is Melissa Jeste and I bring you greetings from the Historic Preservation Division for the State of Georgia. When I was asked, what are you doing to advance equity and inclusion through preservation, I couldn't help but think about my first job working in my beloved hometown of Savannah, Georgia. There, working with the residents and neighbors, I was advancing equity and inclusion in Savannah's predominantly black historic neighborhoods that surround and support the downtown landmark district that most people know. In 2000, I was doing DEI work advocating for the equal treatment of other historic neighborhoods and building a sense of belonging to the preservation movement amongst people of all classes and races. Today, I continue my work in Georgia on a state level, as the need persists for specific outreach to communities of African descent and communities of color. And for technical information and intervention to save and document the hundreds of historic resources left off the radar of traditional preservation and heritage programs. To borrow the sentiment expressed by Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, preservationists don't wake up saying, hmm, let's see what black and brown people I can exclude from the movement today. But that's what's happening. And that's definitely the perception. I do believe the majority in the preservation field and movement can recognize and admit to preservation's role in disenfranchisement, no matter how small, and can choose to act directly to facilitate bringing benefits of preservation to all people in all communities. While I have no magic innovations to report, I must report that my preservation work here is made possible with a network of 3,000 constituents throughout Georgia's 159 counties who are working on the ground in their hometowns and without whom the work of diversifying the preservation movement here would screech to a halt. Hi, I'm Dr. Michelle Bachelor Robinson and I'm a professor in the English department at Spelman College. So the question about what am I doing in my community to advance equity and inclusion through preservation involves multiple historically black communities. I wrote a grant that was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that piloted six HBCU HBTSA partnerships. Each partnership identified a historic preservation project to be housed within the community and are working together through student engagement to create the projects. Hi, my name is Ethiel Garlington and I'm with Historic Making Foundation in Macon, Georgia. The first thing I should say is that probably the biggest accomplishment for our organization this year has been just the awareness that preservation and our organization have not always been reflective of our community and not always focused on inclusion and equity. We also don't often talk about the neighborhoods that where buildings don't exist anymore. We have several neighborhoods in our community that were decimated through federally backed programs such as the highway program and of course urban renewal. And we as an organization have had a hard time knowing how to interpret those places without buildings or without houses. We're aware of that and we know that we need to do better and can do better. So through tools like our Fading Five program, which is an endangered list, we are starting to raise awareness about the buildings that remain but make sure that we're telling the entire story of a neighborhood known as the Tybee neighborhood. We're also buying rental housing in neighborhoods that we've worked in. For a long time our Revolving Fund is focused on single family, owner-occupied houses. We recognize that we need to provide more housing opportunities for all types of residents and buyers and so we're buying, fixing up and renting housing for as another alternative in our neighborhoods. Hi, I'm Edward Torres, preservation architect here in Chicago. Currently I'm working on a neighborhood called Pilson, which the city has recommended a historic district about 440 structures and 75 murals. We are trying to advance that to not only save the buildings that are currently there but also to create a preservation plan or a strategy that includes affordable housing, that includes tax incentives for existing residents, it also includes some open lands and how can you create jobs within the community. So preservation is one of the lakes of that improvement and I think this model is going to be more popular as we see that preservation doesn't stand alone, it needs these other elements to minimize stratification or misplacement once a district or a community becomes a district. Hello, my name is Linda Williams and my affiliation with the historic preservation field is I gave tours of this area for five years through an organization called Restoration Exchange Omaha. And that group encouraged me, inspired me to earn a master's in historic preservation and I did that through Boston Architectural College and I earned that degree in 2014. I'm the first African American female to earn that degree from that school. Well, I created Awareness for five years about Wiginton. This building was designed by Omaha's first African American architect Clarence Wiginton. He designed it in 1909 and then he it was built in 1913 after the Easter tornado ripped through here and killed 200 people and destroyed a lot of African American properties. And so I've been creating awareness about this unsung hero for a long time and giving tours to students. They're a perception of this area of being bad and not a good place to be or live changes within minutes after they learn about the history of the area, especially about Wiginton. Hello, I'm Denise Gilmore and I serve as a senior director in the Mayor's Office of Social Justice and Racial Equity. Here in the city of Birmingham, we've taken great strides toward an equitable approach in the restoration of the A.G. Gaston Motel. The site where civil rights leaders gathered to plan Project C, the protest that ultimately led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The A.G. Gaston Construction Company, a 100% African American owned construction company and a legacy company to Dr. A.G. Gaston is performing the restoration of the historic motel. Additionally, over 50% of the dollars that have been invested in the restoration has been spent with minority and women owned businesses for professional and construction services. So the city is intentionally building capacity and preservation for minority and women owned firms. We have successfully completed the restoration of the 1954 wing and will soon begin the phase two of the 1968 wing. Through this project, the city of Birmingham is advancing an equitable and inclusive transformation preservation project.