I retired in 1999 and moved to Earlysville, Virginia. We found the Charlottesville area appealing because of its wineries, theater and fabulous dining options. It had a reputation as a great place to retire. A 2004 issue of Frommer’s even designated Charlottesville the “Best City to Live in the United States.”
As I learned more about the area, I began to envision ways that we can, in the next 20 years, truly live up to that honor by embracing all of our community and history.
Because I had extensive healthcare experience, I was embraced by Martha Jefferson Hospital soon after I arrived and invited to be on the steering committee of their community health program. That role led to additional committee memberships at the hospital, where I met new people, made friends and became fully embedded in the Charlottesville community.
After living here for 28 years, I still really love it, but I’ve come to learn some of the area’s ugly truths.
In 2018, I was invited to co-chair a task force at The Center at Belvedere to review the organizations’ overall functioning. The review revealed a lack of diversity in all areas of operations. Around the same time, the country was grappling with a racial reckoning, including the 2017 white supremacists rallies in Charlottesville and the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Center responded by making diversity, equity and inclusion a core value of the organization and established a committee, which I chair.
As my DEI committee work has progressed, I’ve learned much about Black Charlottesville’s proud history and the amount of effort made to preserve and share it. Much of that history is unknown among the white community. Many members of The Center, retirees and people who come here for school or work, are unaware that Black businesses have existed on the downtown mall since the 1800s and have always had an impact on the city’s economic vitality. These information gaps are a barrier to the respect, admiration and regard that Black people who come from this area deserve.
The DEI committee creates programs to engage and educate people about diverse races and cultures. We feature and discuss documentary films, recruit speakers to address health and socioeconomic issues and host art and music events that bring people together. We’re not naive about the existence of deeply-engrained racism in some people, but we believe that sharing information that informs about the bad parts of American and local history while uplifting the good parts demonstrates that as humans, we’re more alike than we are different. These are baby steps, but we believe they help close the divide between people.
In August, 2025, I became the editor of the Beloved Community CVille newsletter. I attended one of their programs and was drawn to the organization primarily because of its mission “to shine the light of truth on the history of the local African American community.” This aligns well with the work I do at The Center and in this role, I hope to effectively communicate Black facts, highlight Black businesses and promote the contributions and successes of Charlottesville’s Black community.
It’s time for Charlottesville to face its “ugly truths.” Perhaps in 20 years, by growing and supporting those doing the work to share history and community, it can truly boast that it is the “Best City to Live in the United States” for all of us.
The first step to creating our shared future is imagining it.
For Charlottesville Tomorrow’s 20th anniversary, we are inviting central Virginians to share their visions for the next 20 years.
