Board of Directors Biographies

Dr. Kerri Moseley-Hobbs, Board Vice-Chair

M.S. & M.BA, University of Maryland; Ed.D., Walden University

Dr. Kerri Moseley-Hobbs is a policy, regulation, and administration specialist in the field of higher education. She continues an almost 25-year professional career in management, administration, and policy. Prior to her career in higher education administration and leadership, Dr. Moseley-Hobbs worked as a promotions assistant and junior writer at The Baltimore Times Newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland. She was first published by the newspaper when she was 12 years old and continued to be published until she was 18 years old at which time, she began her career in higher education. Kerri is a 6th generation descendant of John Fraction, who was enslaved at Smithfield and the subject of her Creative Nonfiction book More Than A Fraction. In her current role Dr. Moseley-Hobbs continues an almost 15-year career in higher education administration and leadership including working in the efforts to ensure strength in areas such as student aid, federal title IV compliance, accreditation, curriculum development, and innovative academic programs.

Julie Tollison McMichael, Board Treasurer

B.S., University of Virginia; Commerce with concentrations in Finance and Management

Julie Tollison McMichael is a native of the New River Valley having been born and raised in Riner, VA. After graduating from Christiansburg High School, she attended the University of Virginia where she received a Bachelor of Science in Commerce with concentrations in Finance and Management. Following in her father’s footsteps, she’s spent the last 31 years in Banking having worked the bulk of her career with Wachovia in North Carolina. She moved back to the area nearly nine years ago to live closer to her parents and determined that First Bank & Trust was the most like her Dad’s bank back in the day and is really enjoying lending to commercial and consumer customers again.

Julie has a daughter Molly, graduating from college this May and enjoys running, tennis, church and her volunteer efforts in the community both past and present. Most of all, Julie likes working with the community to help it grow and develop to better serve the community members and helping people follow their true passions.

Dr. Daniel Barrett Thorp

Ph.D. in American Colonial History, John Hopkins University; M.A. in American Colonial History, John Hopkins University; B.A. in History, Davidson College; Universitè Touraine, French Language

Dan is an Associate Professor of History and serves as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs at Virginia Tech. He is the winner of the William E. Wine Award for Teaching Excellence (2013), Teacher of the Week (2012), Favorite Faculty (2010), Faculty Excellence Award (2009), ECaliber Award for Excellence in Technology-assisted Teaching (2007), Advancing Women Award (2007), and Alumni Award for Excellence in Academic Advising (2000). Dan has published multiple works, including his book in The True Blue’s Wake: Slavery and Freedom among the Families of Smithfield Plantation (University of Virginia Press, 2022).

Marjorie McRae

B.A. in Economics, Goucher College; M.A. in Economics, UC Berkeley; Ph.D. in Psychology, Wright Institute

Marjorie is newly retired from a 40-year career as a consultant in the energy sector, conducting program evaluation and market research in support of the energy efficiency and renewable energy efforts of electric utilities and local, state, and federal agencies. For twenty years, she was Vice President of Research into Action, a consulting firm that at its peak had a staff of more than 30 and revenues of more than $7,000,000. Marjorie received a doctorate from Wright Institute, an MA from UC Berkeley, and a BA from Goucher College. She has career experience as Executive Consultant for Opinion Dynamics, Vice President for Research into Action, Principal for Xenergy, and as Senior Analyst for Minimax Research Group. She has several publications, honors, and awards. Marjorie is a Preston descendent.

Dr. Elizabeth Lee Robertson

B.S., Virginia Tech and Longwood University; MA, Virginia Tech; Ed.D. in Administration, Virginia Tech

Betty’s interest in history intensified with her marriage to Professor Bud Robertson in 2010 and accompanied him on most of his speaking engagements throughout the US, including several programs hosted by Historic Smithfield. Since her husband’s death, she has continued to work on a documentary featuring his career and service beginning with his appointment to Virginia’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.

Her background has included degrees from Longwood, MA from VA Tech, and Doctorate in Administration from VA Tech. She served as a Teacher, Counselor, Guidance Coordinator, Vice Principal, Middle School Principal, and High School Principal - Patrick Henry HS - Roanoke City. And she participated in professional development conferences at Oxford University. After early retirement from Roanoke City Schools, she served on VT’s alumni relations staff in the Richmond office. Her work involved Legislative advocacy and organizing Hokie Day at the General Assembly. She also served on several boards related to education, amateur sports, and international sister community organizations.

Laura Wedin

M.F.A., Virginia Tech; Certified Archaeological Technician

Originally from Texas, Laura completed her Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Tech in 1984 and stayed in Blacksburg. She raised two sons and has enjoyed a long career in student programming with Alumni Relations and Advancement at Virginia Tech, where her interest in university and area history began. Her work at Smithfield started in 1999, first as a house interpreter, then later as a newsletter editor for 6 years, museum store staff, and writing articles for the Smithfield Review. She is a member of the Archaeological Society of Virginia and is a certified archaeological technician in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She has been involved in archaeological work at the Preston Cemetery and the grounds of Smithfield. Her interest in Smithfield is a holistic one - the Preston family, the full plantation grounds which had also included Solitude and White Thorn, the enslaved who worked in the homes and the land, and how the area and narrative evolved over time. A diehard Virginia Tech Hokie, she holds the belief that the founding of Olin and Preston Institute in 1851 was the earliest glimmer of Virginia Tech, now a major land grant public institution.

Robert Marston Fanney

B.A., Flagler College; Police Officer Graduate, Hampton Roads Police Academy, Department of the U.S. Navy; U.S. Army National Guard Veteran, Eight Years of Active Guard Service; Managing Editor, Emerging Threats, Jane’s Information Group; Writer, Luthiel’s Song, Growth Shock, Scribbler’s Climate Blog, and The OBX Wave Report

Robert’s history can be broken down into two phases - active public service and writing and editing. In public service, Robert held the roles of infantryman, forward observer, police officer, and military intelligence analyst. He then served as managing editor for Jane’s Information Group’s emerging threat series - producing first responder guides following the 911, anthrax letter, and school shooting events of the early 2000s. Robert then published Luthiel’s Song - a young adult fantasy series - and spent numerous years going to schools to help teachers promote higher learning standards through reading and creative expression. Robert’s next project was a multi-year climate blog focused on raising climate awareness and promoting the rapid deployment of clean energy. Robert was a special guest for Voice of America radio on the issue of climate change and extreme weather with Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Channel and Weather Underground in 2015. Presently, Robert is promoting coastal defense and climate action through his video blog - the OBX Wave Report.

Robert, an avid surfer and climate activist, is a descendant of James Patton Preston, son of Colonel William Preston and Susanna Smith Preston.

Dr. Phyllis Cave

Bachelor’s Degree, William & Mary; Master’s Degree, William & Mary; Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Phyllis is a Preston descendent through Colonel James Patton and has long interest in Smithfield over three decades. She is connected to the White and Taliaferro families, other Scottish immigrants of the period. She received undergraduate and master’s degrees from William & Mary, then her Ph.D. from University of Minnesota.

Phyllis worked in clinical psychology in private practice and at the University of Minnesota. Also, she taught in continuing ed training, and focused in specialties such as eating, depression, and personality disorders. She has had several peer review publications.

Her interests and service since retirement have been centered on the Asbury United Methodist Church in Harrisonburg. Several generations of relatives attended Virginia Tech, which brought her to visit them and Smithfield through the years.

Dr. Paul Quigley

Paul Quigley is Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and James I. Robertson, Jr. Associate Professor of Civil War History in the History Department at Virginia Tech. A native of Manchester, England, he holds degrees from Lancaster University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Quigley is the author of Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-65, which won the British Association for American Studies Book Prize, the Jefferson Davis Award from the Museum of the Confederacy, and the Albert Lee Sturm Award from the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. His work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Southern History and Journal of the Civil War Era, as well as the Roanoke Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the New York Times Disunion section. In 2018, he published an edited volume entitled The Civil War and The Transformation of American Citizenship, and another essay collection, Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives, co-edited with his colleague James E. Hawdon.

He serves on the board of the Society of Civil War Historians, the editorial board of the journal Civil War History, the board of the Smithfield-Preston Foundation, and the historians’ advisory board of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond.

Breyon Fraction

Breyon has many years of experience in state government and behavioral health. He established The Stratamas Group, LLC. Breyon values providing mentorship to Virginia Tech students, where he joined his fraternal organization and served the Montgomery County, Radford, and Greater Roanoke Valley communities. He participates in local and statewide behavioral health initiatives, national business development organizations, and youth sports development leagues.

B.S., M.S., North Carolina State University; Chemical Engineering

John Tilton

After Graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in Forestry, John entered the US Army as a logistics officer where he served for seven years – including a deployment to Mogadishu, Somalia. After leaving the service, John began a new career in Information Technology while raising four children, all of whom are grown now and still a big part of his life.

IT jobs took John all over Virginia and Tennessee until he wound up at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where he stayed for five years until 2021. The pandemic saw him come back to where he started at Virginia Tech. He is now a System Administrator for the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. In 2021, he also began blacksmithing and soon began serving as a volunteer smith for Smithfield. He now has a complete forge set up but still loves the opportunities that volunteering in the smithy gives him to serve the Foundation and his community, passing on historical knowledge and a love for a rare art to a new generation. He also volunteers as a blacksmith in support of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, of which he is also an alum.

B.S. in History from Sweet Briar College and an A.A.S. in Accounting from Virginia Western C.C.

B.S. in Plant Sciences from the University of Delaware and an M.S. in Horticulture with a focus on plant nutrition from Virginia Tech