The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor has a new leader for its territory that stretches along the coast from the Carolinas into Florida.
Victoria Smalls was selected as the group’s new executive director last week, according to a press release. A member of the Gullah Geechee community and native of St. Helena, Smalls’ resume includes years of experience working as a director of history, art and culture at the Penn Center in St. Helena, director of the York W. Bailey Museum and commissioner with the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission.
Created by Congress in 2006, the corridor works to protect Gullah Geechee cultural regions, natural areas and historic sites throughout the Southeast.
Smalls has also served with other organizations and commissioned boards with goals that overlap with the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor’s, including the International African American Museum, the Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina University and the National Park Service as a park ranger at the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in Beaufort.
Commission chair Dionne Hoskins-Brown, who lives in Savannah, is stepping down as acting director as Smalls moves into the role.
“I am absolutely ecstatic that we are able to place someone as capable as Ms. Smalls at the helm of our organization,” she said in the press release. “She is eminently qualified, uniquely prepared and profoundly representative of the community.”
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