Senior Leadership
The Staff
Blair LM Kelley
Director, Southern Futures
Blair LM Kelley, Ph.D. is an award-winning author, historian, and scholar of the African American experience. A dedicated public historian, Kelley works to amplify the histories of Black people, chronicling the everyday impact of their activism. Kelley is currently the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the incoming director of the Center for the Study of the American South, the first Black woman to serve in that role in the center’s thirty-year history.
Jordan Lovejoy
Assistant Director, Southern Futures
jlovejoy@unc.edu
Jordan Lovejoy is an American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellow and Visiting Instructor of American Studies and Folklore at UNC Chapel Hill. She holds a PhD in English with an interdisciplinary specialization in folklore from The Ohio State University. Lovejoy is interested in environmental folklife, engaged ethnography, and literature and artistic expression of Appalachia and the American South. Read more about her work [...]
Jai Neville
Director of Operations
jdnev@live.unc.edu
As a proud alum of UNC-Chapel Hill and the Hussman School, Jai brings years of experience in the service industry, where they developed a passion for uniting people and highlighting the strengths that make individuals valuable to their communities. Their research interests focus on the working class in the American South. At CSAS, Jai supports the initiative’s mission of nurturing future leaders of the South that focus on honoring and uplifting the region.
Hallie Brew
Research and Engagement Coordinator
hcbrew@unc.edu
Hallie Brew is an undergraduate in the American Studies Department in the College of Arts & Sciences.She collaborates with the Center’s team to plan, develop, and coordinate programming, with an emphasis on fostering critical conversations regarding the American South. She partners with community and campus groups with shared goals to expand the Center's outreach.
Nikolas Lewis
Communications & Research Analyst
nlew@unc.edu
Nikolas Lewis is an Economics and Public Policy undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences. He works to strengthen connections between Southern Futures researchers and employ data-informed analyses to optimize events at CSAS. Nikolas' work includes developing data visualization tools that make complex data structures more accessible to both researchers and the public.
Tony Royle Jr.
Coordinator of Student Research and Mentorship
tony_royle@unc.edu
Tony Royle is a PhD Student in the American Studies Department at the College of Arts & Sciences. He is responsible for guiding the fellows within the Southern Futures Fellows Undergraduate Program and facilitating their growth as researchers within their communities. Tony provides valuable support in the development of their research projects, nurturing their skills and helping them become effective contributors to community-engaged scholarship.