Recent events have thrust issues of race and social justice to the forefront of the national conversation, but systemic inequities have been obstacles for generations. Interpreters are uniquely positioned to effect positive change, but what actions can we take, regardless of where we work or what we interpret, to overcome injustice, not only at our sites but throughout society? This panel discussion highlights accomplished interpreters who work to serve underserved populations, promote cultural understanding, and amplify voices for positive change.
Moderator Parker McMullen Bushman is the Vice President for Programs on NAI’s Board of Directors, and is the chair of NAI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. She conducts trainings on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and she serves as the the Vice President for Community Engagement, Education, and Inclusion at the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver.
Jose Chavez has held multiple leadership positions with NAI, including director of the Sunny Southeast Region and on the Board of Directors. As manager of the Reedy Creek Nature Center for Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation in Charlotte, North Carolina, he works to bring nature to urban communities.
Ramsey Harris has served on NAI National Conference committees and as an officer for the Sierra Pacific Region, and she has presented on the Black Panthers and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at NAI national and international conferences. She uses interpretation in urban youth education programs in her role as Community Program Director at the Gang Rescue and Support Project (GRASP) in Denver, and she is a member and community activist for Denver’s Black Lives Matter 5280 chapter.
Elon Cook Lee serves as the Director of Interpretation and Education at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her recent career has included serving as Program Director and Curator at the Center for Reconciliation in Providence, Rhode Island, and the director of and later consultant for the Robbins House, an African American historic site in Concord, Massachusetts. She is also a member of the National Advisory Committee for Old Salem Museums and Gardens, and a member of the board of the Slave Dwelling Project. Through her consulting business, Liberation Heritage, she has trained hundreds of historic site interpreters and museum professionals across the country on interpretation theory, and how to incorporate feminist and antiracist frameworks into museum work.
Francis Mendoza is a Supervising Naturalist at the East Bay Regional Park District in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked for Literacy for Environmental Justice, served on the Steering Committee Chairperson for ChangeScale (an Environmental Education Collaborative in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas), and specializes in working with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and other marginalized communities. He is a member of NAI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and has served on an NAI National Conference committee.
Robin White is the superintendent at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, where she interprets the events of September 1957 at Little Rock Central High, a turning point in America’s Civil Rights movement. She has worked as a Park Aide and Urban Coordinator at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Northwest Indiana, where she worked with rival gangs in Gary, Indiana, and partnered with the Chicago Department of Human Services gang intervention network. At Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, NM, she co-founded Rites of Passage, a gang prevention and intervention program. She was part of the management team establishing Brown V Board of Education as the Chief of Interpretation, and later became Education Specialist and Chief of Interpretation establishing New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park in New Orleans.
