Town Crier Articles

NTRA’s popular series of Noon Talks will be starting again in September. The Activities Committee has already lined up most of the speakers for the series.  Noon Talks are presented at 12:00 noon at Center Street Grille on the second Wednesday of September, November, January, March and May each year. For your long term planning, the known speakers are listed below.  Be sure to also watch the calendar on the NTRA website to stay current.    

 

Wednesday, Sept 11, 2019 - Joan Peterson, Executive Director, Literacy for Life.  See additional information below.

 

Wednesday, Nov 13, 2019 - Mark Henneman, Director of Marketing & Community Relations, ReStore, Habitat for Humanity.

 

Wednesday, Jan 8, 2020 - Randy Flood, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of the American Revolution Consortium for Civic Education talking about Busting Myths of the American Revolution.

 

Wednesday, Mar 11, 2020 open at this time.

 

Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - Joe Jones, Director, W&M Center for Archaeological Research  talking about The Archeological History of Our Own Roper Park.

 

The speaker in September, Joan Peterson, has served as the executive director of Literacy for Life since 2008. As the agency’s first full time employee, Peterson developed the small struggling organization into a nationally recognized, award-winning, 1000+ person operation. Under her leadership three programs have been developed to meet critically important community needs: a health literacy program (HEAL Program), a work skills program (EmployEd), and a school based program for parents who struggle with English literacy (Empowering Parents Program).

 

Peterson has served on numerous state level and local boards and was recently appointed by Governor Northam to the Virginia Board of Workforce Development. She was the 2016 recipient of the Nancy E. Jiranek Award for Outstanding Executive Director and has accepted awards for Outstanding Nonprofit of the Year by the Greater Williamsburg Area Chamber and Tourism Alliance and the Award for Innovation and Collaboration for the HEAL program from ProLiteracy, a thousand member international association.