As the days get warmer and we move towards summer, the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire (BHTNH) gears up for a packed season of substantive programming, starting with the Sankofa Guided Walking Tours in May, the Juneteenth Celebration in June and on to the Community Reading of Frederick Douglass in July. And, in conjunction with that, BHTNH is announcing that four new individuals have come on board the stellar nonprofit.
BHTNH President Dennis Britton, author and associate professor of English at UNH, is thrilled with the caliber of new board members. “We could not be more thrilled at where we are today as a nonprofit and the fact that so many wonderful people are coming to us ready to help with our mission of promoting awareness and appreciation of African American history and life to build more inclusive communities today.”
JerriAnne Boggis, BHTNH executive director agrees, “We have ambitious plans for the organization as we grow from a Coastal-centered to a statewide-centered nonprofit. To have the expertise and dedication of these four will make all the difference in the world…
The four new board members include:
Kimberly Crisp is with Cardinal Point Property Management in Greenland.  She has worked in PR measurement, academic fundraising, and she put her Magna Cum Laude from UNH – with special honors in history – to use by researching and writing extensively about the red-light district in Portsmouth at the turn of the twentieth century.
Arul Mahadevan is the Medical Director of the Radiation Oncology Department at the Seacoast Cancer Center at Wentworth Douglass Hospital in Dover. Born and raised in Southern India, he built a stellar career there and in Scotland before coming to Northwestern University/Chicago and the Cleveland Clinic. He lives in Madbury with his family and serves on the boards of Berwick Academy and Partners for World Health.
Rahkiya Medley is Chief Administrative Prosecutor in the Division of Enforcement at the Office of Professional Licensing and Certification for the State of New Hampshire. She earned her bachelor of science in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland and worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center commanding two low earth-orbiting satellites. She then moved to New Hampshire and graduated from UNH School of Law and has intellectual property, contract, and civil litigation experience.
John Shaw is the CEO and co-founder, Itaconix plc a publicly traded world leader in safer plant-based ingredients used in everyday consumer products.  He is passionate about applying open innovation to advance better understanding and outcomes in business, public, and not-for-profit sectors. John began his career at McKinsey & Company, founded Kensington Research, and held senior roles at SmithKline Beecham, Westaim Biomedical, and Mitek Systems. He has a BA in Economics from Pomona College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
And, JerriAnne is hoping BHTNH will benefit this summer from the boost from New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult. Commissioned by Frommers Travel Guide in its “Best Places 2021: Great Authors on Our America,” Picoult advises readers to add the Trail to their travel plans: “Sobering and eye-opening, the Black Heritage Trail forces us to question those we have traditionally considered heroes and to elevate those who have been marginalized instead. It squarely centers Black life in early America, at a time when we as Americans need to be rewriting our history to do so.”