The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission will soon begin a search for a new executive director, the commission’s chairperson said today.
The executive director’s position became vacant Friday following a special commission meeting on Wednesday, commission chair Dr. Dionne Hoskins-Brown of Savannah told the Charleston City Paper. A search is expected to start in early December, she said.
In July 2021, Victoria Smalls, a St. Helena Island native, was named executive director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (GGCHC). The corridor’s commission is the policy-making body for the region created by Congress in 2006 to protect Gullah Geechee culture, natural resources and historic sites in a narrow four-state coastal region that extends from Wilmington, N.C., to St. Augustine, Fla.
“I am no longer working with the GGCHC,” Smalls said in a text message to the City Paper. “I have launched my new consulting firm Smalls Cultural Resources.” She declined further comment.
“We now have the largest staff we’ve ever had,” Hoskins-Brown said. “Victoria was phenomenally talented as a cultural advocate and orator who had extraordinary personal testimony. We valued that. Moving forward, the commission recognized a need for even stronger communication with our stakeholders and communities and next-level implementation.”
Commission vice chair Griffin Lotson of Darien, Ga., said, “I am glad [Victoria] is bouncing back. That is a good thing for her under the circumstances. She has been good to the Gullah Geechee culture.”
During her two years of service, Smalls oversaw the move of the corridor’s office from Johns Island to Beaufort. In October, she represented the corridor during meetings in Barbados where the corridor and Barbados signed an agreement to promote tourism and culture jointly.
According to a source, the Beaufort office was closed several days recently while the corridor’s human resources officer did an investigation.
The public will not see a change in the corridor’s programming, Hoskins-Brown said.
“Everything is being covered by the existing staff,” she said. The corridor will hold its annual Watch Night Service at noon Dec. 31 at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston. Services will also be held at churches in Wilmington and Jacksonville. “We are working to resume publication of the newsletter at the start of the year,” she added.
The corridor is one of 62 National Heritage Areas managed by the National Park Service (NPS). It is unique, however. because the stories told in the corridor only come from one group, Gullah Geechee people within the 440-mile long corridor.
Elisa Kunz, the national heritage areas regional coordinator in Atlanta, said, “I value all of my working relationships … but the one with the Gullah Geechee commission and the executive director is fantastic and overwhelming because they are covering such a large distance.
“I am grateful for the time I had to work with Victoria, and I hope that as [the corridor] moves forward with this leadership direction that we have good leaders in place to keep it going,” she said.
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