PRESIDENT

I’m co-founder and director of the Montevallo Legacy Project, a Midwesterner by birth and literary historian by training. I taught literature and writing for 25 years at the University of Montevallo and spent part of every year in London researching 18th-century English women writers hidden from history. After retiring, I began thinking about hidden histories closer to home. Where are Black people in our local histories? Why do their faces seldom appear in our public art? What role have African-Americans played in making Montevallo what it is today? And here's a thought. Wouldn't Montevallo be a more interesting place if we all knew more about each other? A new research passion was born.

In the years following a life-changing day at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, I served as co-leader of the Community Remembrance Project, a citizen's group that worked with the Equal Justice Initiative to bring an EJI lynching marker to town in 2022. I served a three-year term on the Montevallo Historic Preservation Commission, the final year as President, and worked to get city approval for the Montevallo African American Heritage Trail. With Anitka Stewart Sims I research and co-edit the Untold Stories of Black Montevallo for monthly publication. I am excited to see MLP become a vital force for recovery of our town’s hidden legacies.

VICE PRESIDENT

Reggie is an alumnus of the University of Montevallo, where he participated in TRIO Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement programs, and undergraduate research. He received a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Chemistry (Biochemistry concentration) in 2018, and a Masters of Education in Secondary Education (General Science) in 2020 all from the University of Montevallo. He is currently a doctoral student in Higher Education Administration at the University of Southern Mississippi. His thesis and research focus examines asynchronous and synchronous learning modalities on the success and retention of African American students. He is a co-founder of the Montevallo Legacy Project, and on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Montevallo Legacy Project–a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve stories of the past, foster community, unity, and cultural diversity, and make available empowering legacies for the future. He is also the founder and host of the podcast TalkinUpward, developed to allocate the experiences of TRIO students, professionals, and stakeholders. In his free time, Reggie enjoys playing music (guitar and bass), competitive gaming, cooking, and trying new recipes.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT LIAISON

Joyce Jones is a native daughter of the City of Montevallo with family roots that extend at least four generations into this community. She is the recently appointed Director of Engaged Education and Public Service with the University of Montevallo where she works to build pathways and partnerships between students and the surrounding communities. For the past 17 years, she has helped students
meet their higher educational goals at the University through her service in both the Graduate and Undergraduate Admissions Offices.

In 2020, Joyce campaigned for the position of Mayor of Montevallo, AL. After building an engaging campaign of unity and inclusion for “One Montevallo”, she was able to
mobilize new and disenfranchised voters in the local political process and fell short of becoming the first black mayor of Montevallo by only a 48-vote margin.

She is passionate about sharing LIGHT and LOVE with the world and makes that her daily mission in life. One of her favorite quotes is “the only weapon I have is Love and it is more than enough.” Joyce and her husband, “Pastor Mike”, currently live in a neighboring city of Montevallo and together they serve the greater Shelby County community through their ministry, partnerships, and volunteerism.

TREASURER

I’m amazed by the accomplishments of people of color in my local community, and I believe their stories should be accessible. I joined the MLP to raise awareness and preserve the positive achievements of local champions, and to rewrite Montevallo's historical narrative of the black community. As a local resident myself, I gather oral histories, and then archive them through print and digital platforms.

Many stories from my community are lost to time. When I need to find inspiration to search for lost stories, I remember a quote from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History about preserving history from family members who have passed. “That’s the binding legacy they leave for families and the world.”

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Harrison Neville serves as the communications director for the Montevallo Legacy Project. He’s lived in Alabama his whole life, and his family has been here for generations. He is passionate about preserving history and loves working to tell stories that might otherwise be forgotten. In addition to his work with the MLP, Harrison is the editor in chief and founder of The Sunrise News, an independent, online news source dedicated to serving the people of Alabama with honest and informative news.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR/WEB DEVELOPER

I am so excited for the future of Montevallo. The MLP highlights the excellence of the south, our rich and detailed history. But, Alabama’s history is widely viewed through a white patriarchal lens. It determines whose stories do and don't get told.

As a journalist, my duty is to provide a platform for voices that are silenced, ignored, or unheard. With the MLP, I take those stories, and amplify them through immersive digital storytelling. I hope our work inspires readers to redefine their own narratives.

Outside of the MLP, I work in sexual health education and advocacy for Advocates for Youth. And at heart, I’m mostly an artist. I work in many mediums but mostly video art and music these days. I am a queer woman, so expressing my creativity in non-traditional ways is incredibly affirming.

RESEARCH CONSULTANT

James Salter is a native of Montevallo, Alabama, where he graduated from Almont Elementary School, attended Prentice High School, and graduated from Montevallo High School. In 1979, he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Business Management from the University of Montevallo, where he was a charter member of the Nu Tau Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

He retired from the U.S. Postal Service after thirty years of service. He is currently a board member of the Montevallo Historic Preservation Commission and a member of the Montevallo Historical Society.

With a lifelong passion for family and community history, James looks forward to working with the Montevallo Legacy Project by helping to develop the great African American Heritage Trail and other projects.

RESEARCH CONSULTANT

Melanie S. Morrison is a social justice educator and author of five books including Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham. The work of racial justice is her deepest vocational calling. She has served as executive director of Allies for Change, a national network of racial justice educators, and as director of the Leaven Center, a retreat and study center in Michigan dedicated to nurturing the relationship between spirituality and social justice.

She is a Midwesterner by birth with ancestral roots in Alabama. Since 2018, she has been engaged in intensive research and writing about her Montevallo ancestors, Edmund King, and his daughter, Elizabeth King Shortridge, who accumulated wealth from two systems of theft: the dispossession of Native people from their homelands and the enslavement of African Americans.

Melanie believes it is possible to grow ever more aware of the history of systemic injustice without surrendering our capacity for compassion, joy, and hope.

RESEARCH CONSULTANT

Carey Heatherly is a native Alabamian. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Samford University, majoring in History, and a Master’s of Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama. He joined the University of Montevallo’s faculty in November 2007 as the University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, the school’s first. He has authored several pieces including an encyclopedia entry on noted Southern Gothic writer William Cobb; articles on digital pedagogy; and the books, Montevallo and Montevallo: Past and Present, both pictorial histories co-written with Dr. Clark Hultquist. He has served campus and the profession in a number of capacities such as chairing the Hallie Farmer Lecture Series, as President of Faculty Senate and as President of the Society of Alabama Archivists.