We are proud of our Advisory Board
William R. Ferris
is a professor of history at UNC–Chapel Hill and an adjunct professor in the Curriculum in Folklore. He is associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, and is widely recognized as a leader in Southern studies, African-American music and folklore. He is the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to his role at NEH, Ferris served as the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, where he was a faculty member for 18 years.
Birney Imes
For more than 30 years, photographer Birney Imes has captured the people, places, and culture of his native Mississippi. Working in both black and white and color, Imes’s photographs take viewers inside juke joints and dilapidated restaurants scattered across the Southern landscape. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, La Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and many public and private collections in the United States and abroad.
Lucius T. Outlaw
is a Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University where his teaching and scholarly interests are racial matters in socio-political life, in the United States in particular, and in legacies and practices of European and Euro-American Philosophy; Social and Political Philosophy and Africana Philosophy.
Robert Damm
is Professor of Music and Director of Music Education Partnerships at MSU. An active percussionist, his recitals have showcased many world music instruments. His freelance performing activity includes work with Big Joe Shelton and the Black Prairie Blues Ambassadors, Jesse Robinson and the Hip Waders, Blues Axis, and the Hep Cats Jazz Trio. He studied music and culture in Cuba, Ghana, and Mali. He published articles concerning Mississippi hill country fife and drum, the bamboula rhythm of New Orleans, the fanga rhythm and dance, classic rudimental snare drum repertoire, samba, and the udu of Nigeria. He is a certified Orff-Schulwerk teacher and a Smithsonian Folkways certified teacher of world music.
Scott Barretta
Scott is the host of Highway 61 on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, a writer/researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail, and was on the team that created the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. He is an instructor of sociology at the University of Mississippi, and was an editor and is a contributor to Living Blues magazine, published by the Center For the Study of Southern Culture in Oxford. In 2016 he received the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for Mississippi Heritage. Scott is literally a walking textbook of the blues. His interest in, support, and promotion of the blues [here in Mississippi] is rivaled by none.
Roger Stolle
After a long marketing career in Corporate America, "Mad Man" Roger Stolle moved to Clarksdale in 2002 with a mission to "organize and promote the blues from within." He owns Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art, co-founded multiple blues festivals, writes for Blues Music Magazine and is a contributing editor to Delta Magazine, authored "Hidden History of Mississippi Blues" and "Mississippi Juke Joint Confidential", has contributed to blues radio shows and co-produced award-winning films like Hard Times, M for Mississippi and We Juke Up in Here. He is co-creator of the web series Moonshine & Mojo Hands. He produced three acclaimed albums on Big George Brock and has assisted other blues record labels. He's also toured Mississippi bluesmen to at least 8 foreign countries.
Marc O'Ferrall
Vice President, Marketing & Communications at National Black Mcdonalds Operators Association. He is the owner of O'Ferrall Management Group, a Mcdonalds franchise.
Jeffrey Rupp
is the director of outreach for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach at Mississippi State University. He brings light into the E-Center and and the Idea Shop, connecting the university and community with relationships in the field of entrepreneurship. Rupp is the Alderman for the City of Starkville, Ward 3. From 2001 to 2006 he served as Mayor for the City of Columbus, MS . He also worked for many years at WCBI-TV. He loves playing rock and roll and can be seen often playing for public events in the Golden Triangle.
Curtis Davis-Strong
was born in West Point, MS/Clay County between Whites Station and Stronghill. He remembers as young adult driving his father and uncles to the Juke Joints in White Station, Mayhew Junction and other Juke Joints in the Prairie area to see Howlin Wolf, Bukka White, Albert King and others perform. He is related to Howling Wolf through his great grandmother and Albert King is his first cousin. He now lives in Las Vegas, NV since retiring from US Army.
Keith and Chrissie Heard
Keith is the President of Key Impact Strategies with offices in Washington, DC and Jackson, Mississippi and a Senior Policy Advisor for the National Rural Water Association. He formerly served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran, Chairman of Senate Appropriations. Keith previously served in executive roles with the National Cotton Council and the National Corn Growers Association. In 2016 he was named to "Mississippi's Top 50," a list of the most influential Mississippians for shaping business, politics and public policy.
