George Barrett | Executive Director | george@jacksoncenter.info
George Barrett came to Chapel Hill in 2010, by way of Charlotte, NC, as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. He graduated from UNC in 2014 with a degree in Anthropology. He joined the Jackson Center the following Fall as an Americorps Vista volunteer for Economic Development. Following his Vista year, George became the Associate Director for Organizing and Advocacy, and later served as Associate Director for four years. As Associate Director, George led university-community partnerships, directed the critical home repair program – Promise of Home– and was part of the project team for the Northside Neighborhood Initiative: a multi-partner initiative to preserve the future of the Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin-Top neighborhoods. In July of 2020, George became the first full time, on-site, Executive Director of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center. George is a dancer, performer, and movement maker, with a passion for facilitating groups and communities to reach their self-determined goals.
Yvonne Cleveland | Director of Operations | contact@jacksoncenter.info
Yvonne Cleveland relocated from Brooklyn, NY to Chapel Hill, NC in 1989. She is a dedicated member of St. Joseph C.M.E.—where she teaches Sunday School and is an active member of the Voices of Joy choir. Yvonne believes the Jackson Center could not be a more perfect place for her to work serving others, helping those in need, and making a difference. Sometimes she even thinks “it doesn’t feel like work at all!” Yvonne is the proud mother of four children and four grandchildren.
Christine Abernathy | Director of Housing Justice | christine@jacksoncenter.info
Christine first got involved with the Jackson Center when they were a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since then, they have remained connected through their work at Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, by leading youth empowerment initiatives, and through volunteering with Orange County Rape Crisis Center. They are passionate about ensuring everyone has a decent place to live, and energized to work alongside neighborhood leaders to bend the housing market towards justice. Outside of work, you can find them practicing a yogic lifestyle, discovering plants, doodling, and writing poetry.
Dr. Kathryn Wall | Co-Director of Public History | kathryn@jacksoncenter.info
Kathryn Wall joined the Jackson Center as a project manager and part of the oral history team in Summer 2019. In 2021, she became one of the Co-Directors of Public History and in 2024 she joined the Jackson Center’s leadership team. A three-time graduate of UNC, her first experience in Northside was interviewing Edwin Caldwell, Sr. for the Southern Oral History Program in the 1990s and she considers it an immense privilege to continue to bear witness to history told by community members today. When she is not at the Jackson Center, Kathryn enjoys training in To-Shin Do self-defense, playing senior women’s basketball, and playing tenor saxophone with the Village Band of Chapel Hill/Carrboro and occasionally the UNC Tar Heel pep band. She lives in Chapel Hill with her wife Kerri, their super-mutt Ziggy, and three rescue cats. Their daughter, Ivy, is a senior painting and print-making major at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Anna Spencer | Co-Director of Public History | anna.spencer@jacksoncenter.info
Anna Spencer joined the Jackson Center as a Public History Research Fellow in Summer 2020. In the summer of 2021, she became one of the Co-Director’s of Public History. She is an alumna of the UNC Library Science master’s program, and also holds a MS and BS in public history. In her work at the Jackson Center, she focuses on maintaining the oral history archives and community history website From the Rock Wall. When not working, she enjoys baking, cross stitching, and visiting museums and historic sites.
Aisha Booze-hall | Director of Education | aisha@jacksoncenter.info
Aisha Booze-Hall is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They have a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with a concentration in sustainability and a secondary bachelor’s degree in African American and Diaspora Studies. They spend the majority of their time teaching civil rights-driven and local history-focused history in classrooms throughout the triangle. They partner with Activate! IFC and Southern Vision Alliance to coordinate the Chapel Hill Sankofa Freedom School, a two-week intensive training camp for young folks to learn about the importance of activism, local history, and their power as youth. Their work focuses on creative avenues of telling your story, youth power, and sharing history as a mechanism of healing. They also co-coordinate the Marian Cheek Jackson Center’s Link program that partners long-term residents with students to mentor and build relationships with one another.
Diana Nayeon Koo | Director of Communications and Student Engagement | diana@jacksoncenter.info
Diana Koo graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied Public Policy and Political Science. She began working at the Jackson Center in summer 2019, when she helped organize the 2019 Good Neighbor Initiative and managed the completion of the Northside Census. Now she works on student engagement, where she shares the histories, values, and traditions of the Northside, Pine Knolls, and Tin Top communities with UNC students while engaging them as partners in service and advocacy. She facilitates meaningful service opportunities for UNC student service partners, organizes neighborhood events and outreach to student neighbors, and hosts workshops, service days, and orientations for interested volunteers and groups.
Renna Voss | Heavenly Groceries & Student Engagement Fellow | renna@jacksoncenter.info
Renna Voss began working with the Marian Cheek Jackson Center in the summer of 2024, shortly after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in Environmental studies and Creative Writing. She works to grow and sustain Heavenly Groceries by recruiting volunteers, recovering as much food as possible in the community, and getting it to anyone and everyone who wants it. Renna is honored to ground herself in so much community love, and honored to be a resource for students and service partners who like to do the same. Renna lives in Pine Knolls now, but spent her childhood in Asheville, North Carolina. Outside of work, She likes to knit, dance, read poems, write poems, rollerblade, hike, cook, and spend time with loved ones.
Joshua Norrell | Learning Across Generations Coordinator | joshua@jacksoncenter.info
Joshua was born to a military family, relocated to Chapel Hill in 2007.
He grew up in the community of Elliott woods and spent his days playing in the Hargraves Center and walking the streets of Northside.
Joshua found his passions to serve others through volunteering at the animal shelter and for local community programs. He followed that passion into the hospitality sector and after working in the triangle in this capacity he decided he needed to do more for the community that raised him. He began to make strides towards community work surrounding child education through volunteering at the local boys and girls club helping with various tasks, this is where he would learn about The Marian Cheek Jackson Center. After joining the Jackson Center as a way to focus his passion into the local community he began his work as the new Education Coordinator. He supports coordinating and collaborating with educators and administrators throughout chapel hill, helping facilitate current and future Learning Across Generations workshops, programming for freedom schools, and he also leads the Fusion Youth Radio Program and supports his colleges with their endeavors in the organization. He looks forward to serving his community to the best of his ability.
Mae McLendon | Community Connector | mae@jacksoncenter.info
Mae was born in the little town of Red Springs, NC. Her mother moved her “kicking and screaming” to Orange County in 1964. She now cannot imagine living anywhere else.
She was educated in the Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. She earned a BA in Sociology and Master of Social Work from UNC- Chapel Hill. Her employment history includes working with NC Department of Correction (now Public Safety) where she retired with 25+ years of service. Other positions after retirement include serving as Volunteer Coordinator at Durham County Cooperative Extension, Habitat for Humanity of Orange County and Interfaith Council for Social Service. She is currently employed part-time as a Facility/Activity Supervisor, Town of Carrboro’s Recreation and Parks Department.
As a volunteer coordinator Mae practices “what she preaches” and learned from her mother about giving back. Some of her past civic activities include serving on Chapel Hill Planning Board; Orange County Board of Social Services, Board of Directors of Inter-Faith Council for Social Services and, NC Inmate Grievance Resolution Board.
Her current activities include serving as Coordinator and member Planning Committee for Chapel Hill Carrboro CROP Hunger Walk, and, member Orange County Affordable Housing Advisory Board. She is very active in her church, St. Paul AME in Chapel Hill, serving as member of Steward Board, member of Usher Board, member of Duhart-Clark Women Missionary Society, unofficial photographer and editor of e-newsletter which she started and sends out weekly to members.
She has been active in local politics since 1968 serving in various positions on the precinct, county and state level. Her association memberships include NAACP (Chapel Hill – Carrboro Branch); American Correctional Association; NC Correctional Association; NC Association of Volunteer Administration, and State Employees Association of NC.
Her awards and recognitions include Marsha Riddle Lifetime Achievement Award from the NC Association of Volunteer Administration; Irene Briggarmen Lifetime Achievement Award from Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce; Mildred Berkley Outstanding Service Award, Inter Faith Council for Social Service ; Rebecca Clark Community Service Award from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Branch NAACP, Mary C. Terrell Service Award from National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, the H. G. “Gus” Moeller Outstanding Service Award from the NC Correctional Association, and Outstanding Contributor to Volunteerism from the International Association of Justice Volunteerism.
Mae is the daughter of the late Amos and Martha McLendon. She had two sisters Hattie Miles (deceased) and Helen Galbreath. She is the proud mother of Anissa “Niecy” McLendon.
Cameron Myers Milne | Development and Operations Coordinator | cameron@jacksoncenter.info
Cameron started as a student volunteer with the Heavenly Groceries food distribution, then continued her service with the Jackson Center as a MacDonald Community Fellow, designing and incorporating arts activities into community events. After graduation, Cameron was hired as a Student Engagement Intern to train new volunteers and coordinate then reopened Heavenly Groceries food pantry. She transitioned into an Executive Assistant role, and later was hired as a Development and Operations Specialist. As of summer 2025, Cameron moved into a full-time Development and Operations Coordinator position, in which she writes and manages grants, refines internal organizational and technical systems, and stewards relationships with MCJC supporters.
Cameron moved out of the Triangle in 2024, returning to Chapel Hill on a seasonal basis for major MCJC and community events. She works remotely from her homes in Wilson, NC, and Albuquerque, NM. Cameron loves to travel, converse in Spanish, play with children, drink peppermint tea, and submerge herself in water. Outside of work, she is involved with a national network for citizenship educators and a pro-bono immigration law clinic in New Mexico. Cameron is the only child of two gay women and was born and raised in eastern NC.
Travis Alston | Northside Neighborhood Initiative Construction Manager | travisalston@hotmail.com
Travis was born and raised in Chapel Hill with a background in Construction, Project Management, Code Enforcement, and Inspections. He looks forward to serving the Northside Neighborhood with his experience and desire to serve this great community.
Michael Jones | Housing Justice Coordinator | michael@jacksoncenter.info
Michael is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana (root for the Saints and Pelicans, of course) who is proud to now call Durham, NC home. He is the husband to Nicole and the father to 15-year-old boy/girl twins, Carter and Camille, and an adult daughter Tonnica. He retired after a 30-year military career. His call to faith began as a teenager but has only been fully realized in the past 6 years with a call to Divinity School and the ministry of preaching. He is simply, “a sinner saved by Grace!” He is excited to be working with the Jackson Center in the area of housing justice. His experience in New Orleans pre and post-Katrina as well as his time in Durham has deepened my commitment to the fight for affordable housing and the flourishing of all.
Julia Prabel | Student Engagement Summer Fellow | juliap@jacksoncenter.info
Ty Chapman | LINK/NRF Program Coordinator | nrf.link@jacksoncenter.info