ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The newest members of the Montpelier Foundation’s Board of Directors have been announced.

According to a release, the 11 new members were among 20 recommended by the Montpelier Descendants Committee.

The new members are:

  • Leslie Alexander, PhD, an Associate Professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies and the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. 
  • Daina Ramey Berry, PhD, the Chair of the Department of History at The University of Texas at Austin. 
  • Reverend Cornell William Brooks, JD, the Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School. 
  • DeAnna Dodds Cummings, MPA, the Arts program director at the McKnight Foundation. 
  • F. Michael Higginbotham, JD, LLM, a law professor, author, and international political consultant. 
  • Hasan Kwame Jeffries, PhD, an Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University, where he teaches courses on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement. 
  • Dean Nicole Thorne Jenkins, PhD, CPA, the John A. Griffin Dean of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. 
  • Soledad O’Brien, an award-winning journalist, critically acclaimed author, speaker, and philanthropist who anchors and produces the Hearst Television political magazine program “Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien.” 
  • Joshua Rothman, PhD, the Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama. 
  • Ian H. Solomon, JD, the Dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. 
  • Reverend Lawrence “Larry” E. Walker, Sr., a church pastor and administrator in Columbia, Maryland, particularly focused on youth education and community empowerment. 

The release says that the addition of these people to the board means the Montpelier Foundation has made “tremendous strides” toward being more national and more diverse than ever, reaching the goal of parity.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation commended the board for its selection of these new members on Monday.