“In 2019, when the Nationwide Belief’s Board of Trustees requested me to tackle the function of president and CEO, I did so with a number of foremost targets: to strengthen {our relationships} throughout the preservation group—but additionally to redefine that group within the broadest potential method,” Edmondson mentioned. “To institutionalize the notion that telling the complete American story should be a core aspect of the entire Nationwide Belief’s work. To broaden our efforts to say a powerful nationwide voice articulating the worth and relevancy of historic preservation. And to advertise continued innovation and inclusive public engagement at our historic websites. In fact, the pandemic threw one other objective in our path: to take care of a secure operational base for the group—and never merely to experience out the storm, however to make sure that we had a powerful platform for future development.”
The Nationwide Belief is a Washington D.C.,–primarily based privately-funded nonprofit group that preserves and celebrates America’s historic locations. A perpetual drawback for the sphere at each stage is a scarcity of funds to assist each side of preservation, from constructing conservation and analysis to outreach and advocacy. In his virtually four-year tenure, Edmondson oversaw a grant-making price range that swelled from $3 million to greater than $18 million.
He additionally stewarded The African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund, a program based 5 years in the past as a $25 million fund to assist preservation of Black Historical past websites, serving to to boost $80 million for this system from 2017 to the current. Amongst its many initiatives, in October 2020, the fund produced a report, Preserving African American Locations: Rising Preservation’s Potential as a Path for Fairness, that sought to higher perceive place-based injustice and its influence on historic preservation in addition to determine methods to spur preservation-based equitable development methods in Black neighborhoods.
( events can apply for Action Fund National Grants to assist work that “advance[s] ongoing preservation actions for historic websites, museums & landscapes that characterize African American cultural heritage.” The Letter of Intent deadline is December 19.)
Similtaneously these initiatives, a change to digital conferences in the course of the pandemic allowed greater than 2,000 folks to join the Nationwide Belief’s annual convention; 30 % of whom attended for the primary time.
Edmondson succeeded Stephanie Meeks, the Belief’s eighth president and first girl chief government officer, who served within the function from 2010 to 2018. Throughout her tenure Meeks executed a five-year strategic plan for the group, initiated Nationwide Treasures, a program that highlights endangered constructions, and launched the aforementioned African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund.
Clemens supplied a tribute and parting phrases of gratitude to Edmondson in an announcement shared by the Nationwide Belief: “I wish to thank [Paul] for the various years through which he led the foremost authorized advocacy staff for historic preservation within the nation, in addition to constructed the preservation easement program of the Nationwide Belief, to not point out directing the number of company authorized providers wanted to function a fancy nonprofit group. The affect of Paul’s work over time can’t be seen in small measures, for its influence has been far-reaching, field-defining, and a number one mannequin for preservation.”