Ruth Carter is a two-time Academy Award-winning American costume designer for film and television, best known for her work on "Black Panther" and collaborations with Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler, Steven Spielberg and Ava DuVernay. Her visit coincided with the May 11 opening of her “Afrofuturism in Costume Design” exhibit at Jamestown Settlement.

Joe McGill has a 30-year career in public history. He is founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, which allows people to sleep in extant slave dwellings to raise awareness and preservation of these often-neglected structures. His book "Sleeping with the Ancestors" was released in 2023.

Aimee R. Guidera is the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia, overseeing public education from early childhood to postsecondary learning. During her 35-year career, she has championed high expectations for every student and the changes needed to deliver on that commitment.

Susan Devan Harness, a cultural anthropologist, member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes and an American Indian transracial adoptee, shared her journey to understanding the complexities and struggles of being an American Indian child adopted by a White couple living in the rural American West. Having written and spoken to national and international audiences on American Indian transracial adoption reform, she is an award-winning author of “Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption” and recently published her cultural anthropology research “Mixing Cultural Identities Through Transracial Adoption.”

Michael W. Twitty, an African American and Jewish culinary historian and food writer, is a blogger at Afroculinaria.com and author of award-winning books -- the 2018 James Beard Award’s “The Cooking Gene” that traces his food ancestry from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom, “Rice” and “KosherSoul,” a recipient of the 2023 National Jewish Book Award. He has appeared on numerous national television programs and holds esteemed roles as a National Geographic Explorer and 2022 TIME 100 Next class member. He explored how he connects his personal roots through food.

In 2022, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Jamestown Island to the list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. David M. Givens, Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation's director of archaeology at Historic Jamestowne, addressed the climate challenges that Jamestown faces and his team's efforts to preserve and protect this critical site, as well as recent exciting finds related to past and modern-day climate change that will rewrite American history.

An American presidential historian, podcast host and bestselling author, Alexis Coe is the first woman historian to write a biography of Washington in over a hundred years. She was a consulting producer on and appeared in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Washington series on The History Channel, frequently appearing on live television and in documentaries. She discussed bridging scholarship and wit to create captivating historical works.

As The History Channel/A&E Networks chief historian and senior vice president for Corporate Social Responsibility, Dr. Kimberly Gilmore has been responsible for bringing some of the most compelling documentaries, mini-series and dramatic films to the small screen for more than 20 years. She discussed how to bring the creative and historical together to hook viewers on history.

Veteran historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker is widely recognized as the nation’s foremost interpreter of Thomas Jefferson and has performed around the world, portraying Thomas Jefferson at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for 26 years and Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello as of June 2019. Combining the tools of theater with rigorous historical scholarship, his approach explores Jefferson’s life and times, and how it relates to our world today. Christy S. Coleman and Mr. Barker discussed the changes seen in the scholarship and how the public responds to this iconic figure.

Shannon LaNier is a veteran news anchor , author and social media influencer who’s been keeping audiences tuned in for decades. He also happens to be the 6th great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Christy S. Coleman and Mr. LaNier talked about the role and responsibility of journalism and media in American discourse. They also discussed our shared but complicated legacies with the approach of the 250th commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Winona LaDuke is a member of the Ojibwe Nation and an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems. A 2007 inductee in the National Women’s Hall of Fame, she has written widely on Native American and environmental issues. An acclaimed author of five books, including “Recovering the Sacred, All Our Relations” and “Last Standing Woman,” she discussed her efforts to deploy Indigenous techniques to stem climate change.

Dr. Keisha Blain, a full professor of Africana Studies and History at Brown University, is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and Class of 2022 Carnegie Fellow and regarded as one of the most innovative and influential young historians of her generation. Blain, who has written extensively about African American history and is a columnist for MSNBC and a regular contributor to NPR, BBC and other national and international media outlets, discussed Black freedom struggles and their impact on American history and culture.

Lonnie G. Bunch III, an American educator and historian, is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the first African American and first historian to serve in this prominent role. Bunch, who has spent most of his career as a history museum curator and administrator, discussed how museums have evolved during the past decades and the role they play in public life now and in the future.

Dr. Joanne B. Freeman is a U.S. historian of the Revolutionary era and Early Republic and tenured professor of history and American Studies at Yale University. Regarded as a leading expert on the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton, Freeman has researched his work independently and collaboratively for more than 40 years. She served as a co-host of the nationally syndicated podcast “Backstory” and as a consultant for the award-winning Broadway musical “Hamilton.” On March 23, 2022 audiences explored all things Hamilton, fact and fiction.

Jason Herbert is a scholar who explores the social, political, demographic and ecological transformation of Southeastern American Indians, Europeans and Africans in Florida in the 18th and 19th centuries. His popular multimedia experience, “Historians at the Movies,” connects historians and movie buffs with many of our favorite films. This inaugural conversation on January 19, 2022 explored how popular culture influences the public’s understanding of American history.