Our Team
Corrie Claiborne, PhD
Director
Dr. Corrie Claiborne is an Associate Professor of English and American Literature at Morehouse College and Director of the Movement, Memory, and Justice Project. As an educator of over 24 years, she specializes in teaching and writing about the American South and the Civil Rights Movement. Her work with CWI is closely tied to the work that she does with and in Gullah Geechee communities, particularly in terms of how the stories of Gullah Geechee people help illuminate key parts of the African American story. Her essay, “‘Decorating the Decorations': Daughters of the Dust and the Aesthetics of the Quilt,” was published in 2020 by Peter Lang Press in a collection commemorating the 25th anniversary of Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust. She is also a writer and the executive director for a documentary on Johnnetta Betsch Cole.
Ron Daise
Advisory Board, Mentor
RON DAISE (pronounced DAYS), a son of St. Helena Island, SC, is an author, Emmy-nominated performer, educator, and cultural interpreter. His productions and recordings about Gullah Geechee culture and history have documented his heritage for decades. His publications began with Reminiscences of Sea Island Heritage, in 1986. Several books and recordings have followed, including his Geechee Literature Series and his most recent historical novel, Raptors in the Ricelands, by Belle Isle Books.
From 2004-2022, DAISE served as Vice President for Creative Education at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC, where his accomplishments, in part, garnered him the 2019 SC Governor's Distinctive Achievement Award. He is known by many as “Mr. Ron” from “Gullah Gullah Island,” the Nick Jr. TV’s award-winning children’s program of the 1990s. Daise also is a former chairman and charter member of the federal Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission and currently serves on the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies Advisory Board. He is featured on exhibits at the International African American Museum, Charleston, SC, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC.
A graduate of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, VA, Daise and his wife Natalie Daise reside in Georgetown, SC, and are parents of two adult children.
Michelle S. Hite, Ph.D.
Advisory Board
Michelle S. Hite, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English at Spelman College, where she directs the Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program, co-directs prestigious international fellowships, and serves as the Campus Coordinator for the UNCF Mellon Mays Program. In addition to being a founder of the African American Honors Collective—with honors program directors at Claflin, Hampton, and Prairie View—she is also President of the Toni Morrison Society.
Dr. Hite’s research often draws on figures in popular culture to meditate on humanist, civic, and spiritual concerns. Her commitment to memory work and cultural preservation is evident in her collaborative participation in the Memory, Movement, and Justice initiative with Morehouse College. She was also selected to join the National Humanities Center's virtual institute, Podcasting for Humanities Faculty and Staff: Storytelling for a Modern Audience, which complements her leadership in launching Spotify’s NextGen Curriculum initiative.
Dedicated to demonstrating the relevance of the humanities in public life, Dr. Hite facilitates intergenerational and cross-sector dialogue—bringing together participants “from the shop floor to the c-suite” through her work with Reflection Point. As an expression of her interest in academic leadership, she was named an ACS Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow.
Erica Veal
CIG Trainer
Erica Veal is a historian, heritage interpreter based in Charleston. She has been a National Association for Interpretation - Certified Interpretive Guide since 2011, a National Association for Interpretation - Certified Interpretive Trainer since 2021 and has trained over 60 new Certified Interpretive Guides.
She is a former Master Naturalist instructor with over 18 years' experience leading cultural and natural history tours across Charleston County and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Cooridor.
Erica is an at-large board member with the National Association for Interpretation and the founder of the Black and Brown Interpreters Network.
Her expertise is in the history of Charleston, South Carolina, Gullah Geechee history and culture, Southern US history, native plants and more.
Tendaji Bailey
Associate Director
Tendaji Bailey is a Gullah Geechee native of Port Royal and St. Helena Island, SC. A 2015 graduate of Morehouse College, he is a former middle school math teacher and community organizer turned artist and founder of the Gullah Geechee Futures Project. Through the Mellon Morehouse Movement, Memory, & Justice Project, Tendaji developed the summer internship and events to educate the public about the rich history and culture of Gullah Geechee communities throughout the coastal Southeast. He serves as the Harriet Tubman Exhibition Program Manager at Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park, offering tours and workshops, and is a Certified Interpretive Guide.
As an emerging artist, Tendaji embraces the role of a Griot, a traditional storyteller, by singing, songwriting, and curating immersive experiences through his recent work, "SEEKING|SOARING: Gullah Resilience Songs."
Martina Dodd
Advisory Board, Mentor
Martina Dodd is the Curator of Collections & Exhibitions at the Banneker-Douglass Museum, specializing in the preservation, study, and expansion of African American-centered collections. A Maryland native, she connects art and archival materials to provide nuanced interpretations of African American experiences and contributions. With expertise in African and African Diasporan arts, Dodd employs innovative object-based learning pedagogy to engage diverse audiences. She holds an M.A. in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the University of East Anglia and a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies from Johns Ho
Dayron J. Miles
Advisory Board
Dayron J. Miles is the Associate Artistic Director at American Repertory Theater, working with Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Paulus as a key thought partner to advance A.R.T.’s mission to expand the boundaries of theater and in creating and sustaining the vision for the A.R.T. His work centers audience and community in all aspects of the theater and upholds A.R.T.’s values in all artistic undertakings. Miles joined A.R.T. in November 2019 as the Senior Advisor for Civic Engagement and Strategic Partnerships to co-vision with Paulus A.R.T.’s future home Harvard’s Allston campus.
Miles was previously the Founding Director of Public Works Dallas at the Dallas Theater Center, a community engagement and participatory theater project designed to deliberately blur the line between professional artists and community members. There, he executive-produced three large-scale productions, each featuring more than 200 cast members. Prior, Miles worked in community engagement at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA, where he launched the “Play After Work” series.
Miles was the recipient of the 2008-2009 Kenny Leon Artistic Fellowship, which initially brought him to the Alliance. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Blake Anderson Public Service Award in 2018, and serves on various boards and committees, including as a community representative on the Boston Public Library Trustees’ Community Engagement Committee. He was a pilot cohort member of A.R.T.’s Arts and Culture Organization Management program and a member of the 2015 class of Engage Dallas. A graduate of Wright State University, Miles is originally from Toledo, OH.
Andrea Jackson Gavin
Mentor
Andrea Jackson Gavin is the Program Director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust, an initiative to sustain and deepen capacity for the digitization, discovery, and preservation of African American history collections held by HBCU libraries and archives. Prior to joining Harvard Library, she served in several capacities at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library, including Director of Engagement and Scholarship, Grant Writer and administrator, and Head of Archives Research Center. Jackson Gavin was previously the Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium based at the University of Chicago Libraries, where she strategically supported Chicagoland African American history and archives.
A staunch HBCU advocate, Jackson Gavin is an alumna of Spelman College, and New York University with a M.A. degree in US History and certification in Archival Management. She participated in the Archives Leadership Institute, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians, and was honored as a 2018 Fellow of the Society of Georgia Archivists. Jackson Gavin is co-author of “Funding the Future of African American Religion Archival Collections at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library” in the Theological Librarianship Journal, as well as the chapter, “‘Loving Blackness’ as a First-Year Composition Student Learning Outcome in the Archives” in the book, Teaching through the Archives: Text, Collaboration, and Activism.