Jari Honora
Keynote Speaker · Certified Genealogist
Jari C. Honora, a Certified Genealogist®, is a New Orleans native and proud Louisiana Creole with roots dating back more than two centuries along Bayou Lafourche and the German-Acadian Coast. He is a graduate of St. Augustine High School and Tulane University. He works as Family Historian in the Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection. He previously worked for Le Musée de f.p.c. and taught in local charter schools. He also does historical and genealogical research professionally, including the TV programs "Finding Your Roots," "We'll Meet Again," and the Georgetown Memory Project. He has presented at numerous historical and genealogical conferences including the International Black Genealogy Summit; American Educational Research Association; Southern Historical Society; Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (AAHGS); and the Canadian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. As one of four contributors to the CreoleGen blog, he regularly shares research findings on Louisiana Creole people and institutions.
Guy Weston
Lunch Speaker · Timbuctoo Historical Society
Guy Weston's current activities encompass research and public history initiatives to raise the profile of Timbuctoo, NJ, where his fourth great grandfather purchased land in 1829. These have included interpretive signage in Timbuctoo, coordination of a curriculum development project in collaboration with local teachers, and preservation efforts for the Timbuctoo cemetery, where the oldest gravestone is dated 1847. He currently serves as Managing Director of the Timbuctoo Historical Society and is a Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University. He has contributed articles to Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) Journal, AAHGS News, National Genealogical Society Magazine, and New Jersey Studies.
Chef Keesha O'Galdez
Lunch Cook-Along
Keesha O'Galdez is a personal chef. She has completed the Chef's training program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Culinary Arts in New York City, focusing on organic, vegetarian, vegan, and other health-supportive diets. She also has a BS in Information Systems Engineering from Buffalo University—SUNY and an MBA from Simmons College in Boston, MA. She has worked in the non-profit, academic, public, and financial sectors as a project consultant and operations manager. She has graced the kitchens as a Pastry Chef at Smith Canteen in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, Amy's Bread and Smile to Go in Soho, and Savory as a catering chef at Patina Events. You may have seen Chef Keesha on multiple episodes of Epicurious's 50 Person Prep challenge web series, which has reached over 10 million views, and Food Network's Chopped.
Delbra Brown
Delbra Brown has been conducting genealogical research for over 35 years, self-teaching her way through online resources to uncover the history of her family. Her maternal roots trace back to Bullock and Macon Counties in Alabama, while her paternal lineage originates from Jamaica. Professionally, Delbra works as an automation test engineer in the IT industry; however, her true passion lies in genealogy, particularly in uncovering the stories of her ancestors lost due to the legacies of slavery. Through her research, Delbra has successfully validated many of the oral histories shared by her grandmother, and she is now dedicated to tracing the lineage of her enslaved ancestors. She has published several books documenting her family's history and transformed one of her published works into a documentary. Today, Delbra is committed to sharing the knowledge she has gained throughout her genealogical journey and is passionate about helping others break through their own research brick walls and discover their ancestral connections.
Carol Parmley
Carol Parmley has over thirty years of experience in family history research as a volunteer, student, FamilySearch Center Consultant/Director, and a genealogist doing business as The Ancestral Guardian. She specializes in U.S. Southern States research and enjoys mentoring and motivational speaking on a variety of genealogical subjects.
Benita Law-Diao
As the self-appointed family historian since the age of 10, Benita found researching her family history has given her strength and drive to venture into places and spaces that have made her life richer. Over the years, Benita continued her quest to learn about her family and formerly enslaved people of the Black Diaspora, so that she can share this history in the Black community in order to fortify them. Benita is an Advisor for the Harriet Tubman NYS Underground Railroad Byway, which will eventually be part of a contiguous historic byway from Maryland to St. Catharine's, Ontario, Canada. As a Board Member for John Brown Lives! (JBL!), a nonprofit freedom education and human rights organization, she engages the public in excavating useful legacies of the past in order to inspire community and civic action. As the Leader for Outdoor Afro-Albany and Upstate NY, Benita works to connect and re-connect Black people to nature through planned and guided outdoor adventures. For the past 4 years, as a Trustee of the Adirondack Experience Museum, she has been bringing busloads of African Americans to the museum to teach them about the little known history of free African Americans who settled in the Adirondacks in the 1800s. She and others have worked to secure $2M from the NYS Legislature to create an African American history gallery that will open at the Adirondack Experience Museum July 4, 2027.
Ruth D. Hunt
Ruth D. Hunt is a seasoned family historian and genealogist. In 1977 she was inspired by Alex Haley and has been researching family history ever since. She has developed research skills that produced miraculous results believed to be gifts from her ancestors. One of her greatest accomplishments was finding her long-lost WWII half-brother in England. She lectures and provides genealogical workshops for numerous organizations, libraries, and civic groups. Ms. Hunt most recently developed a genealogy workshop program for the New York City Veterans, New York City Health + Hospital Corporation Inclusion Group, and the Roanoke Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution. She is a Charter Member of The Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage, has been a member of The Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society since the 1980s, and has been a member of the DAR since 2009.
Dr. Evelyn McDowell
President and Chair of the Board · Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage
Dr. Evelyn Aniton McDowell, Ph.D., CPA, CGMA is the President of the Board of Directors and founder of Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage. She is also an Associate Professor of Accounting at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Baldwin-Wallace College, and her Master of Accountancy and Doctor of Philosophy in Accountancy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She is the Program Director and co-founder of the Aspiring Accounting Professionals Program, an organization devoted to increasing the number of minority accounting professionals through mentoring, community involvement, experiential learning, and academic and peer support. Dr. McDowell was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. In her spare time, she researches her family's genealogy and is a member of the Princeton, NJ Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Jonnie Ramsey Brown
Jonnie Ramsey Brown, an award-winning writer, has traced her family back to slavery, the American Revolution and beyond. She is the family historian and storyteller and holds membership in the Sons & Daughters of the US Middle Passage, Daughters of the American Revolution, First Families of Alabama and several other lineage organizations. Recently, Jonnie wrote a book to bring awareness of racial disparities in healthcare, in honor of the legacy of her late husband, Thomas James Brown. She currently resides in the Los Angeles area and is pursuing the adaptation of her book to film.
Gigi Best-Richardson
Best Richardson African Diaspora Literature & Culture Museum
Gigi Best-Richardson is a Co-Owner, Curator, and Docent of Best Richardson African Diaspora Literature and Culture Nonprofit Museum. An Antiquarian bookseller co-owner since 1997, she is a member of the Association of African American Museums, Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, and a Presenter on the Rare Book Café. She is a Historian (Phi Alpha Theta), Genealogist, Speaker, Poet, and a Virginia Humanities Scholar. Gigi is an award-winning author of "Thomas the Melungeon: His Locust Family of Free Persons of Color, Vol 1" and a contributor to the Inaugural Edition of the SOFAFEA Journal. She attended Morgan State University's Graduate Literature Program. Gigi is a board member of several national hereditary societies, a Historian General of the Society of First African Families of English America, and a board member of Sons and Daughters United States Middle Passage.
