News Release
Alim Ahmand @asquaredphotography
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Contact: John Harlan Warren, 215-908-3159
HAMPTON, Virginia -- National Park Service (NPS) Regional Director Gay Vietzke has named Eola L. Dance superintendent of Fort Monroe National Monument. Located in Hampton, Virginia, the fort is known as the “Gibraltar of the Chesapeake” and “Freedom’s Fortress,” with more than 400 years of historical significance. Dance will begin her new assignment on October 10.
"I am very pleased that Eola will lead the dedicated team of professionals at Fort Monroe,” said Vietzke. “With extensive community engagement and resource management experience, she is perfectly positioned to develop and implement the vision for Fort Monroe in partnership with the community and many stakeholders. Her collaborative spirit and energetic approach will inspire staff and partners alike to help preserve and share Fort Monroe's significance."
“In partnership, Fort Monroe National Monument has contributed to significant progress in telling all stories,” said Dance. “I welcome this opportunity to join the Commonwealth of Virginia, the City of Hampton and our community of partners in documenting and presenting new and dynamic scholarship, using the best science to preserve the natural and cultural landscape of Fort Monroe, and positioning communities to tell their own stories.”
Dance has served in many roles during her 20-year career in the NPS and brings an energy and passion for the untold stories at Fort Monroe. Since August 2020, Dance has served as acting superintendent of the site, reporting to the Colonial National Historical Park superintendent, based in Yorktown, Virginia. Dance previously led the National Capital Area Regional Ethnography program. Additionally, Dance served as the first chief of Visitor Services and Resource Management at Fort Monroe National Monument shortly after establishment of the park in 2011.
Considering herself a lifelong learner, Dance is a student of freedom studies including women’s history, with an emphasis on both suffrage and the contributions of African American women to social change and historic preservation in early to mid-20th century America. Dance received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical College, later pursuing extended studies in Museums and Public History at Howard University and George Mason University. She is a 2014 attendee to Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University’s Public History Program. A 2015 graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, Dance earned a MA in Historic Preservation, having focused her research on climate change and the management of cultural resources in the Chesapeake Bay region. In 2017, Dance completed a graduate certificate in Environmental Policy as a Roger Kennedy NPS Fellow at The George Washington University. She is currently a doctoral student at Howard University in the history program with a focus on the colonial era, women's history and African American experiences.
-NPS-
Last updated: September 30, 2021