Hettie V. Williams, Ph.D., assistant professor of history in the Department of History and Anthropology, has been appointed to the New Jersey State Review Board for Historic Sites. In this position, Williams will lend her expertise in recognizing historic buildings, structures, districts, and archaeological sites worthy of protection across New Jersey. Williams received her letter of appointment from Katherine J. Marcopul, deputy state historic preservation officer, in February 2020.
The board for historic sites, an advisory group that was created in 1969 under the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, gives advice to New Jersey’s State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) who is, by executive order of the Governor of New Jersey, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The board’s main function is to review nominations for the listing of historic properties on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places. The board also examines documentation submitted in conjunction with the Historic Preservation Office, assists with grant evaluation panels in the Certified Local Government Program, and advises on the statewide preservation plan.
Board members are appointed to three-year terms but may also be re-appointed.
Williams is a historian of twentieth century American history and has published book chapters, essays, encyclopedia entries and edited/authored five books. Her latest publications include “Bury My Heart in a Free Land: Black Women Intellectuals in Modern U.S. History” and, with G. Reginald Daniel, Ph.D., professor of historical sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, “Race and the Obama Phenomenon: The Vision of a More Perfect Multiracial Union.” Williams’ forthcoming book, “Black Women and the Long Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey,” is scheduled for publication in 2020.