National Summit on Transformative Memorialization

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About the Event

The 2024 National Summit on Memorializing Forced Labor, hosted by The National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, brings together direct practitioners and experts from across the US dedicated to memorialization efforts related to forced labor and racial injustice. This year’s theme, “Unturning the Stones,” emphasizes the critical task of exploring the complex histories of America’s past and their ongoing impact.

The Summit provides a national platform to exchange insights and strategies, set best practices, and develop collaborative approaches to enhance the impact of memorialization work. Interactive workshops and panel discussions will examine innovations to commemorate past injustices and inspire transformative actions that address their legacy today.

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Confirmed Speakers

Jill Bryant

Professor Jill Bryant served for five years as associate provost and professor of legal studies at Hamline University. She was previously a professor of law and director of Hamline University School of Law’s Business Law Institute, and she also served as director of Hamline Law’s externship program. She has taught a wide range of courses at Hamline Law and Mitchell Hamline, including core courses in corporations, corporate finance, securities regulation, and smaller seminars in corporate ethics and preventive law and corporate practice. Her scholarly research and writing have explored the role of corporate officers in corporate governance, the role of internal lawyers in corporate governance, and the intersection of social science theory and corporate governance.
Professor Bryant also has more than 15 years of corporate law experience. After graduating from Columbia University School of Law in 1983, she worked as in-house counsel to a variety of financial service companies. Prior to teaching at Hamline Law, she was executive vice president, secretary, and general counsel of a financial services company in Minneapolis. Her practice areas included corporate law, governance, corporate disclosures, negotiation of corporate purchase and sale of assets, and financial services.
Camille Westmont 

Camille Westmont (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is an archaeologist and historic preservationist. She is a Marie Curie Sklodowska Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge and an incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research examines industrial labor exploitation in the past and the legacies of that exploitation in the present.

Chassidy Olainu-Alade

Coordinator for Community Engagement in Fort Bend ISD, where she leads the Sugar Land 95 Memorial Project. She is currently an advocate for teaching and learning about the system of convict leasing. She has been instrumental in the adoption of state curriculum standards and development of resources to support teaching about the period of convict leasing. Her most notable work was the creation of the Sugar Land 95 Exhibit which spotlights the discovery of the Sugar Land 95, system of convict leasing and post-Reconstruction America.

Cynthia Padilla Pearson

In her role as a Program Officer at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Cynthia manages a broad-based grants portfolio aligned with the Foundation’s TogetherATL strategy to bring about more equitable outcomes for all residents of our region. Originally from Puerto Rico, Cynthia is a member of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, and a certified trauma specialist. Before joining philanthropy, Cynthia was a career victims’ rights advocate and served 15 years in the court system and nonprofit supporting survivors of complex trauma, developing trauma-informed community programs, and providing specific training for public safety.

Lisa Laplante

Lisa J. Laplante has been a practitioner, researcher, and teacher of transitional justice and human rights for twenty-five years and is a leading international authority on truth and reparation processes.  She began her career in human rights as a Furman Fellow with Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) soon after earning her J.D. from New York University School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Public Interest Scholar.  She then participated in Peru’s transitional justice process in various capacities for six years beginning as a researcher with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a grantee of the Notre Dame University Transitional Justice Program.  In particular, she worked with the Reparations Unit to contribute to the TRC’s final recommendations on how victims of the internal armed conflict should be adequately repaired.
She has extensive experience in community organizing and working with affected populations seeking reparations for human rights violations.  Lisa also co-founded the Praxis Institute for Social Justice, where she served as Deputy Director and oversaw cutting-edge, ethnographic research on themes of memory, truth and reparations funded by the United States Institute of Peace, resulting in prize-winning scholarship that appears in top peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes and law reviews.  She is currently a professor of law at New England Law | Boston where she also directs the Center for International Law and Policy (CILP).
In the fall of 2020, she launched new CILP programming that includes the “Mapping Transitional Justice Initiatives in the United States” project that tracks a national trend of initiatives across the country being established to address historical and current racial injustice. The data generated from this project has helped to create an online resource coordinated by the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton.
Additionally, she spearheaded a collaborative speakers’ series called “Transitional Justice in the USA” that is co-sponsored by forty institutions across the nation and is designed to explore and raise awareness of TJ initiatives in the U.S. and how they relate to themes commonly associated with the international field of transitional justice.

Tatiana Devia

Tatiana Devia is a human rights attorney and legal consultant specializing in strategic litigation, international human rights law, and corporate accountability in contexts of conflict and civil unrest. With a diverse career spanning Latin America and the United States, Tatiana has significantly contributed to transitional justice, international litigation, human rights advocacy, and related investigations. Tatiana works with organizations in Latin America and Africa to explore pathways towards justice and accountability in contexts of transitional justice and peace building with a focus on restorative justice, strategic litigation and partnership building.
As a litigation consultant, Tatiana is currently engaged in complex litigation involving crimes, human rights violations, and torts committed by corporate actors in Colombia, which are now litigated in U.S. federal courts. She is also the founder of the Justice Horizon Initiative, an organization that reimagines transitional justice, provides legal analysis and support, facilitates skill-sharing, and forges partnerships to address conflicts, promote human rights, and advance environmental justice globally. Additionally, Tatiana is an adjunct professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she mentors students and teaches courses under the Criminal Justice Department.
Previously, Tatiana served as a Staff Attorney and Program Lead at the Corporate Accountability Lab in Chicago. Here, she spearheaded initiatives addressing the inclusion of economic actors in the Colombian transitional justice system and corporate accountability in conflict zones. Her experience is further highlighted by her previous work with Women’s Link Worldwide in Colombia and her human rights investigations with the Fair Food Standards Council, a Florida-based organization that advances the human rights of farmworkers globally.
Tatiana holds a Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law, a Master of Sciences in Criminal Forensic Studies from Florida Gulf Coast University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Central Florida. She is fluent in Spanish, advanced in French, and is a member of the Washington, D.C. Bar.

Robin Greeley

Robin Greeley is Professor of Art History and co-Chair of the Arts & Human Rights research program at the University of Connecticut Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute. She writes extensively on art, politics, and human rights in Latin America, specializing in analyzing policies and practices of symbolic reparations for victims of human rights violations.

Ann McCleary

Dr. Ann McCleary has been a practicing public historian for over 45 years, working in museums, historic preservation, public humanities, university teaching, and as a consultant.

Meredith Evans

Meredith Evans is a manager of cultural heritage since the fall of 2015 has been the appointed director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). She is the first African American woman to direct a Presidential Library. As director she focuses on civic engagement, the role of the presidency and public policy, and making accessible the records of President Carter, his Cabinet, the White House administration and Mrs. Carter.
Her past work focuses on the African-American experience in the United States, including the documentation of archival records from African-American churches in the Atlanta area and the preservation of social media from recent civil rights protests such as those of the Ferguson unrest in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Michael Brown.
Evans has expertise in selection, acquisition and preservation of print, audio, visual and digital collections, management, library-wide staff development, fundraising, and community engagement.  She is the 74th President of the Society of American Archivists, holds a Presidential appointment serving on the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and has written on the role and value of museums, libraries and archives. Evans earned a master of library science from Clark Atlanta University and master’s degree in public history at North Carolina State University and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Gael Nzeyimana

Gael Nzeyimana is an economic historian who studies the intersection of race, policy, and economics in American institutions. He has studied reparations and the various channels that have created the current racial wealth gap. He uses quantitative and qualitative data to present a nuanced analysis of contemporary race relations in the U.S. and how The Carter Center can continue advocating for civil and human rights at home. Before joining the Human Rights Program, Nzeyimana was a member of the Democracy Program’s U.S. elections mission. He is an Army veteran who holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Michigan and a Master of Arts in history and economics from the University of Bayreuth.

Summit Partners

           

 

Summit Memorialization Initiatives

Initiative 1: Unity through Remembrance

Build a community of practitioners dedicated to memorializing racial injustices and forced labor. This network will share challenges, find solutions, and develop best practices that enable us to honor our collective past and drive meaningful change for a brighter future.

Initiative 2: Funding Historical Memorials

Establish robust frameworks with national and local investors to continually fund projects memorializing forced labor. We will also set criteria to ensure memorials preserve and amplify accurate historical narratives.

Initiative 3: Systemic Transformation

Explore the profound impact of memorials as catalysts for community restoration. Through policy education and active involvement in public systems, we will discuss how memorials serve as vital tools to repair communities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of this memorialization event?

The summit convenes experts and practitioners from across the US to focus our collective resources on memorializing forced labor and racial injustices. Colleagues have long requested a gathering to share best practices and strategies to ensure this history is acknowledged and preserved. Our summit answers that call. We hope it spurs a long and impactful collaboration.

Who can attend this event?

Due to time and budget limits, attendance is restricted to practitioners from organizations that have previously expressed interest in this topic.

One of the summit’s goals is to identify the range of interested organizations and communities and foster collaboration among them. Our approach aims to develop effective partnerships to memorialize forced labor and address racial injustices, driving meaningful change.

Is there a registration fee for the event?

There is no registration fee. Pre-registration is necessary to secure your seat, as space is limited.

Are there any accommodations?

We are working to secure a discounted hotel rate for attendees within one to two miles of the venue. We will share the details on this page.

What are the logistics for the day of the event, including transportation and parking?

The event will take place in-person at The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, Georgia. The building is convenient to public transportation. Parking vouchers will be provided for attendees who drive. More details will be shared closer to the event.

When will we receive the agenda for the event?

The event agenda will be finalized and sent to registered attendees approximately one month prior to the event. To ensure you receive all updates, please provide a valid email during registration. You can also stay connected with us on social media and check our website regularly for the latest information.

Who do I contact if I have any questions regarding the summit?

Please contact [email protected] for any questions regarding the event.

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