Tonya M. Matthews, Ph.D.

Tonya M. Matthews, Ph.D., helped open the International African American Museum in Charleston in 2023, and under her leadership, the museum has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors. The museum sits on Gadsden’s Wharf, where more than 100,000 enslaved Africans first set foot in North America, has been designated a UNESCO Site of Remembrance. Matthews, who was an engineer and a poet before joining the museum in 2021, is the founder of the STEMinista Project, a national movement designed to empower girls in STEM. She holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University and a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University, and she serves on the board of advisers for the MI STEM Advisory Council. Asked what's next for you in shaping Charleston's future in 2025 and beyond, Matthews said, “In the years ahead, I am deeply committed to advancing Charleston as an international epicenter for genealogy, memory-keeping, and descendant-family discovery. As we like to say around here: ‘All roads lead to South Carolina.’ So we will soon be launching IAAM Homecoming/IAAM Coming Home, a new annual gathering designed to welcome descendants, locals, and visitors ‘back to the water’ to explore their roots, celebrate culture, and deepen their understanding of how personal history shapes community identity. The uniting thing about genealogy is that we all have ancestors. Together, these initiatives will position Charleston — and IAAM — as a place where people come to find themselves, their stories, and each other.”