National Planners

Know affectionately as “The Brain Trust,” this distinguished group of cultural artists and scholars is responsible for the award-winning stature of ZORA! Festival.

N.Y. Nathiri – Chairperson (Eatonville, Fl), Eatonville native; named “Preservation Hero” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation; recipient of the Mary Call Darby Collins Award, presented by the Florida Secretary of State to “a volunteer who has forever changed the course of historic preservation.”

Deidre Helen Crumbley, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC), Africana Studies Program, Division of Multidisciplinary Studies

Ambassador Harriet Elam-Thomas – Diplomacy Program Director, University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL).  Distinguished career with over three decades of service in the diplomatic corps (Europe, Asia and Africa); recipient of numerous awards and recognitions.

Terri Francis, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor, Yale University (New Haven, CT). Film Studies and African American Studies.

Lois Hurston Gaston, Ph.D. – President Emerita, Ybor City Campus, Hillsborough Community College (Tampa, FL).  Co-Trustee, Zora Neale Hurston Trust.

Lonnie Graham – Assistant Professor of Art & Integrative Art, College of Arts and Architecture, Pennsylvania State University. Award-winning photographer.

Robert Hemenway, Ph.D. – Chancellor, University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS). Author of the seminal literary biography titled Zora Neale Hurston.

M.J. Hewitt, Ph.D. – Cultural historian; fine art consultant; curator (Pacific Palisades, CA). Former co-editor of International Review of African-American Art;  over four decades of collaboration with America’s cultural legends (e.g. Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Jacob Lawrence, Maya Angelou, et al).

Richard A. Long, Ph.D. – Professor Emeritus, Emory University (Atlanta, GA).  Cultural historian; distinguished scholar with more than 50 years of teaching, research and writing; internationally respected for dance expertise.

Carrie Mae Weems -  Visual Artist (Syracuse, NY). Internationally recognized photographer, works in the collections of the world’s premier museums.