Staff
Samantha Ellens
Preservation Associate
Samantha is pursuing her PhD in Anthropology (Archaeology) at Wayne State University. She joined Preservation Detroit in November 2018, where she brings a love for public outreach, community archaeology, and the protection of our shared heritage. Samantha received a Masters in Anthropology from Wayne State as well as a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology and Biology from the University of Windsor. At Wayne State, she remains heavily involved with the Unearthing Detroit Project, a community-based initiative dedicated to providing public access to the archaeology of the city.
Email samantha@preservationdetroit.org
Board of Directors
Devan Anderson
President | Board of directors
Devan joined the Board of Directors in February 2020. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Detroit Mercy in 1999, his architecture license in 2007, and is currently a Senior Project Architect in Quinn Evans’ Detroit Office. He served on the Detroit Historic Districts Commission from March 2001 to April 2018, and was its chairperson from December 2006. Devan has been a resident of Detroit for over 20 years, and was a recipient of the Spirit of Detroit Award in 2010 for his work with the Detroit Synergy Group. He is also a member of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network and the State Historic Preservation Commission.
Email: danderson@preservationdetroit.org
Maria Perez
Treasurer | Board of Directors
Maria joined the Preservation Detroit Board of Directors in November of 2023 as the Treasurer.
Email: mperez@preservationdetroit.org
Mark Hall
Director | Board of Directors
Mark Hall, a Detroit native, earned a Bachelor's Degree in Interior Design from College For Creative Studies in 2019. Mark currently lives near Virginia Park and is restoring a 1916 duplex to its original craftsman style. He is passionate for saving architecturally and culturally significant places here in Detroit. Also in his free time Mark photographs much of Detroit's historic architecture to highlight the beauty of the built environment.
Email: mhall@preservationdetroit.org
Jeff Richards
Director | Board of Directors
Jeff joined Preservation Detroit as a volunteer in 2014. He joined the board of directors in early 2016, and was elected as Secretary at the end of 2017. He has a BA degree in Communications from Wayne State University. Jeff has a passion for architecture and historic preservation, particularly in Detroit. He is also an interactive producer, working in online advertising for one of the Big Three.
Email jeff@preservationdetroit.org
Tanya Stephens
Director | Board of Directors
Tanya J. Stephens is a cultural preservationist, independent curator, and art & design historian whose professional career spans over 20 years working in the intersection of art, design, cultural heritage, history and land preservation.
In 2015, she founded Detroit Curated, a Detroit-based curatorial consulting and cultural arts advisory practice dedicated to promoting Detroit art, design, history, and cultural heritage preservation. (detroitcurated.org)
Nate Lindsey
Director | Board of Directors
Nate is a Michigan native who joined Preservation Detroit in 2023. He is a licensed architect who earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture at Illinois Tech in Chicago in 1995. He lived and worked in New York for many years and and has been working in Detroit since 2016. Nate’s work experience is primarily in adaptive-reuse and preservation projects and he has long been researching the history of high-rise buildings. Driven by a deep interest in cities and in architecture, he has spent much of his free time exploring and documenting cities by foot and by bicycle for over 35 years.
Alex Hill
Director | Board of Directors
Alex B. Hill is a Director of Data and Community Research. His work highlights the intersections of power, privilege, and race in regards to health equity, access to basic services, and the social and political determinants of health. He is Project Director of the Detroit Food Map Initiative, which has been mapping food access locations in Detroit since 2011. Alex started DETROITography (detroitography.com) in 2013 to bring together Detroit cartographers and their work. He teaches in urban studies, public health, geography and data visualization. Alex is the author and cartographer of the books, Detroit in 50 Maps (2021) and Great Lakes in 50 Maps (forthcoming) from Belt Publishing. He is a contributor to Detroit Public Television's “Great Lakes Now,” Model D Media, among other local media engagements. Alex serves on a number of boards and committees, including the City of Detroit's GO DATA Advisory Commission, Black Bottom Archives Advisory Board, and the Michigan United Way's ALICE Research Advisory Committee.
Email: alex@preservationdetroit.org
Marcia Black
Director | Board of Directors
Marcia Black is the Executive Director of Black Bottom Archives; a proud Detroiter, Black queer feminist archivist, memory worker, and abolitionist organizer. Marcia is an alum of Marygrove College, where she received her Bachelor's in Political Science and Sociology, and an alum of the University of Texas at Austin where she received a Master of Arts in Womens and Gender Studies, and Master of Science in Information Studies. She created and utilizes a Black queer feminist archival praxis in her work to ensure that Black people’s agency, Black cultural memory practices, and Black liberation are always honored and centered in preservation work. Her life’s work is to ignite and support the development of the archivist that exists within each one of us and to preserve and share the histories of Black women, Black Detroit, and the Black radical tradition.