Meet the Presenter: Renée Ingram, African American Heritage Preservation Foundation & Ran Yan, Lewis Latimer House Museum

Preservation through education is one of the most desired topics in the upcoming 2022 STQRY Summit. We interviewed presenter Renée Ingram, President & Founder of African American Heritage Preservation Foundation (AAHPF), and Ran Yan, Executive Director of Lewis Latimer House Museum, regarding their experience in leveraging digital technology for preserving historical sites, and what we can expect in their panel discussion.

In the early 1990s, Renée Ingram faced a challenge that would reshape her life's work. Her family's cemetery—the historic Stanton Family Cemetery dating back to the 1850s—was endangered by a Virginia Department of Transportation highway expansion project. Rather than accepting this threat to her heritage, Renée took action.

"We feared some of the burials might be disinterred," Renée recalls. "We worked diligently with the Virginia Department of Transportation to realign their proposed plan."

Her efforts led to a groundbreaking achievement: in 1993, the Stanton Family Cemetery became the first free African American privately held family cemetery placed on both the Commonwealth of Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Inspired by this success, Renée founded the African American Heritage Preservation Foundation (AAHPF) that same year, dedicating herself to gaining recognition for endangered and overlooked African American historical sites across the nation.

While Renée's journey began with a personal connection to history, Ran Yan's path started in academia. After earning her master's degree in historic preservation planning at Cornell University, Ran secured a fellowship with the Historic House Trust of New York City, where she pioneered innovative approaches to reimagining historic house museums and connecting with diverse communities.

Her expertise and passion led her to the Lewis Latimer House Museum in 2015, first as program director focusing on community outreach and educational programs. Recognizing early that digital strategy would be essential for small museums with limited physical space, Ran developed online initiatives that would prove invaluable during the pandemic and beyond. Her remarkable achievements in both physical and digital preservation earned her the position of executive director in 2017.

"For small historical house museums like ours, it is crucial to embrace digital strategy as we have a small physical footprint and limited space," Ran explains. Under her leadership, the Lewis Latimer House Museum has become a model for how historical institutions can leverage technology to preserve and share African American heritage with audiences worldwide.

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