Donna Graves

Donna Graves is a historian and cultural planner with over 20 years experience developing public history projects that document and interpret unrecognized histories. Most recently, the California Cultural & Historical Endowment commissioned Graves to conduct a study on the gaps between California's formal heritage programs and its diverse histories. Graves is project director for Preserving California's Japantowns, a statewide effort to identify and document what remains of the many pre-World War II communities that were destroyed by forced removal and incarceration. She is the co-author of the award-winning Sento at Sixth and Main: Preserving Landmarks of Japanese American Heritage (Smithsonian Press), with Gail Dubrow. Graves served as project director for the city of Richmond's Rosie the Riveter Memorial, and worked with the city and National Park Service to initiate, plan, and implement the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park. Graves is on the advisory panel for the National Parks Service's Asian Pacific Islander National Theme Study and serves on the board of advisors to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Recognition for Graves' work includes the Vernacular Architecture Forum's first Advocacy Award, the National Park Service's Home Front Award, and a 2009–10 Loeb Fellowship at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Graves served as a 2013 Center panelist in heritage and a 2014 panelist in Exhibitions & Public Interpretation.