Session 4 Bios: Diversity in DE’s Historic Preservation Programs

Saturday October 17, 10:30am - 12:00pm 

Register:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leslie-caanan-keynote-and-preservation-and-progress-session-4-tickets-124273036999

Chair/Moderator: Marion Werkheiser, Cultural Heritage Partners

Marion Werkheiser is an award-winning lawyer and chief executive at the law and policy firm Cultural Heritage Partners. Her well-established practice is firmly rooted at the intersection of development and preservation, and she advocates for responsible preservation policy at the federal level. She negotiates in Section 106 consultations on behalf of tribes, project proponents, local governments, and other consulting parties to achieve creative, win-win outcomes that appropriately balance preservation values and development needs. Marion also works with investors, financial institutions, and companies to conduct due diligence, assess project risk, and improve internal governance to reduce the impact of infrastructure and other projects on indigenous peoples and cultural heritage worldwide. She advises tribes on developing their own consultation and engagement protocols to promote free, prior, and informed consideration of project impacts. Marion earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and is licensed to practice law in California, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Panelists

Carlton Hall

Carlton Hall is a Cultural Preservation Specialist and Architectural Historian for the Delaware State Historic Preservation Office in Dover, Delaware. In 2015, he conducted scholarly research after joining the Delaware State Historic Preservation Office Staff of Historical & Cultural Affairs and gave presentations on Delaware listings in the Green Book, which is a travel guide created by Victor Green in 1936 for African Americans during segregation. Hall graduated from Delaware State University in 2013 with a master’s degree in Historic Preservation and is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. In his spare time, he enjoys working out, traveling and learning West African culture. Hall is also an Underground Railroad and African American history enthusiast.

Dennis Coker

A lifelong resident of Kent County, Delaware, Dennis J. Coker has been honored to be elected Principal Chief of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware since 1996. During his term, successful collaborations with the Delaware State Historic Preservation Office and the Federal Census Bureau, his Tribe was awarded a Census Designation Area allowing Tribal members to include their ethnicity as Lenape on the 2010 Census for the first time in history. On August 3, 2016 Delaware’s Governor, Jack Markell, signed legislation officially recognizing the long and continued history of the Lenape Community in the state of Delaware.

Chief Coker’s service as a past Chairman of the Confederation of Sovereign Nanticoke-Lenape Tribes of the Delaware Bay has allowed him to effect progress towards recognition of the Indigenous human rights of all member Tribes. His membership in the National Congress of the American Indian (NCIA) and founding membership in the Alliance of Colonial Era Tribes (ACET) has brought recognition, furthered understandings, and developed collaborations for the betterment of Delaware’s Indigenous population.

As a respected public speaker and story teller, Chief Coker has helped educate diverse leadership as well as the public leading to Delaware’s General Assembly proclamation that all residents celebrate November as Native American Heritage Month and learn to honor “The First People of the First State.” In his keynote address at Delaware’s First Annual Environmental Justice Conference, Chief Coker challenged educators to learn and pass on the Lenape view of the interconnectedness of all living things, the sanctity of place, and the concept that man is but one small part of the web of life, not the center of it.

Collaborating with the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) Renewable Energy Initiative, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of the Oceans (MARCO) and his membership on the Chesapeake Bay Advisory Council, Chief Coker’s rare sensitivity for the balance of ecology, economy and ethnicity makes him a valued member of many committees and task forces where he continues to work diligently with federal, state and local governments to improve the health and wellbeing of the Lenape People remaining in their original homeland Lenapehoking, now known as the State of Delaware.

Stephanie M. Lampkin

Stephanie M. Lampkin is the Director of the Jane and Littleton Mitchell Center for African American Heritage at the Delaware Historical Society (dehistory.org).  Ms. Lampkin holds a B.A. in History & Ethnic Studies from Cornell College, and a master’s degree with a Museum Studies certificate, and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. Her volunteer activities include serving on the Collections and Exhibitions Committee at the African American Museum of Philadelphia.  As a part of the Delaware Historical Society, Ms. Lampkin works to share the richness of the African American experience through collections, educational content, digital projects, and engaging public programs. 

Kevin Barni - Coming soon

Kyle Harmon - Coming soon