GLC Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Ghosts of a Lost Cause: Battle for the Will of the People in Small-Town America

Gerry Seavo James is a community planner, storyteller, and advocate for equitable access to nature. He founded Explore Kentucky while in college to connect people to Kentucky’s waterways, trails, and natural heritage through storytelling and recreation: work that inspired his broader focus on inclusive outdoor access and community revitalization. Gerry also leads the Outdoor Recreation Design Lab, a consultancy advancing equitable design and rural transition projects, and serves as president of the Kentucky Conservation Committee. As former Deputy Director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for AllCampaign, he lead national efforts to expand equitable access to nature and public lands. With the American Canoe Association, he helped launch its Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiatives and supported the creation of the Community Paddlesports Leader designation to expand access to leadership opportunities in paddling. He is the Executive Producer of Ghosts of a Lost Cause, a documentary filmed in Murray, Kentucky, that chronicles a grassroots effort to remove a Confederate monument and reckon with the legacy of the Lost Cause in public spaces. At Cherokee State Historic Park, Kentucky’s only state park designated for African Americans during the Jim Crow era, he helped revitalize its Friends Group, establish the Coach Lester Mimms Trail honoring the park’s first superintendent, produce a film about the park, and organize the Segregation in Recreation Symposium at Murray State University. An Air Force veteran, social artist, and photojournalist, Gerry lives in Frankfort, Kentucky with his wife, daughter, and their dog, Everest.

Crystal Fox is a community leader, nonprofit executive, and advocate with more than 25 years of experience in human services and community-based leadership. She is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Mayfield Enrichment Center, founded in 2020 to address gaps and expand opportunities for underserved communities across Western Kentucky.
Following the December 2021 Western Kentucky tornado, Crystal helped lead community response and long-term recovery efforts, building partnerships and connecting families with critical resources. Under her leadership, the Mayfield Enrichment Center has secured more than $500,000 in grant funding and developed more than 30 cross-sector partnerships with schools, government agencies, healthcare organizations, nonprofits, faith communities, businesses, and funders. Crystal’s work spans disaster recovery, food security, youth and family support, civic engagement, community resilience, and advocacy. Her leadership is shaped by both professional experience and her lived experience growing up in Mayfield, Kentucky, where she has spent much of her life serving the community she calls home.
She is a 2024 Rural-Urban Exchange Leadership Cohort participant and is currently participating in the inaugural Outdoors for All Ambassadors Leadership Program, focused on equitable access and community inclusion. Her leadership and service have been recognized through several honors, including being named a 2024 Healthy Kentucky Champion and a 2025 Courage Project recipient. Crystal is also a mother of four and grandmother who believes meaningful change begins with showing up, building relationships, and turning conversation into action.

Michelle Flamer is a Philadelphia native and retired attorney with the City of Philadelphia’s Law Department where she worked as a Senior Attorney, for thirty-nine years. During her tenure in the Law Department, Michelle served as counsel to the advisory committee which provided oversight of the President’s House exhibit, “Freedom and Slavery In The Making of A New Nation.”
After issuance of the Trump Executive Order 14253, Michelle began advocating for saving the President’s House exhibit. Michelle is a co-founder of the President’s House Alliance, member of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition and the Ona Judge Coalition. Since her retirement, Michelle has become a certified interpretive guide through the National Association of Interpretation and is also a member of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. Michelle holds membership in both the Philadelphia Heritage and Edna B. McKenzie Branches of ASALH. Michelle is Board Chair of 1838 Black Metropolis and served as trustee of the Library Company of Philadelphia for nine years. Michelle is an avid art quilter and has exhibited her work in museums and galleries throughout the United States.