Board of Directors
The following individuals have each agreed to serve as a member of the IAAHS Board of Directors for a three-year period.
Phebe Hayes, Ph.D.
Dr. Hayes is Professor and Dean emerita at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Following retirement, she founded the nonprofit Iberia African American Historical Society (IAAHS) in 2017, where she serves as its President. Her public history work focuses on researching, teaching, preserving, and commemorating the histories of African Americans of Iberia Parish and surrounding communities.
She is the biographer of the African American Wakefield family of New Iberia whose lives spanned slavery to the post-Reconstruction era. Her research led to the recent publication of Were You There? A Biography of Emma Wakefield-Paillet (University of Louisiana Press, 2026) which chronicles the life of Wakefield family member, Emma Wakefield-Paillet, Louisiana’s first Black woman physician and the first woman of any race to graduate from a Louisiana medical school.
Officers
Rose E. Dorsey, Esq.
Rose Susan Eugenia Dorsey, named for her progenitors, is a blood descendant of the Simon Freetown massacre, a descendant by adoption of the June 1944 expulsion, and the daughter of loving, courageous, supportive and generous parents. She is a reader, movie watcher, writer, traveler and art collector.
John Warner Smith
John Warner Smith was the Poet Laureate of Louisiana from 2019 to 2021 and is the only African American male to serve in the office in its 84-year history. Smith has published five collections of poetry, most recently Our Shut Eyes, published by MadHat Press in 2021. His sixth collection, From the Flinty Rock: New & Selected Poems, is forthcoming from Legacy Book Press in 2027.
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Smith’s novella, For All Those Men: When the KKK Threatened to Take Control of Louisiana, was published by UL Press in November 2022. Sisters of Gavinville, his first full-length novel, was published in December 2024 by Between the Lines Publishing. Smith’s memoir, I, Too Am Tar Baby, was published by Legacy Book Press in April 2025. His second novella, Murders at Mer Rouge, was published by Between the Lines Publishing in 2026.
A Cave Canem Fellow, Smith is a 2020 Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and is winner of the 2019 Linda Hodge Bromberg Literary Award. He earned his MFA at the University of New Orleans.
Smith is now retired from full-time work and is an Adjunct Instructor of English at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
Doris Robert
Ms. Doris Robert is the treasurer of The Iberia African American Historical Society. She is also a retired educator from the Iberia Parish School System. She owns Robert Tax & Notary Service and is a longtime member of Star Pilgrim Baptist Church. Doris is recognized as a Christian Educator at the state and district levels. She is also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Joyce Deyon-Sallier
Joyce Deyon-Sallier is a Certified Public Accountant delivering high-quality services to and solving complex problems for clients in accounting, finance and auditing since earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University in 1976 and recently earning a Master of Taxation and a Certificate in Estate Tax Planning from Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law in May 2024.
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She has a strong background in both non-profit and for-profit entities, including management and board governance, as well as operations, budgeting, audit readiness, accounting infrastructure, forensic accounting, financial reporting, tax preparation, and tax planning.
Board Members
Shane K. Bernard, Ph.D.
A New Iberia resident, Shane K. Bernard holds a doctorate in History from Texas A&M University and degrees in English and History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is the author of several books on south Louisiana history and culture. For more than thirty years, he has served as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company, maker of TABASCO Brand Products, and its sister company, Avery Island Inc. He has been associated with the IAAHS in one capacity or another since its founding.
John Reedom
John Reedom is a sociologist, educator, and cultural historian whose scholarship and community leadership illuminate the social structures and cultural traditions of African American life in South Louisiana. A graduate of Grambling State University, he earned his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in Sociology (1974) and his Master of Arts in Teaching, Sociology (1977).
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His academic career spans more than twenty‑five years of undergraduate instruction, including service as a faculty member in the Liberal Arts & Humanities Department at South Louisiana Community College.
Reedom’s interdisciplinary work integrates sociological analysis, historical documentation, and ethnographic study of Creole and Catholic parish communities. His research and teaching emphasize kinship systems, oral histories, and the preservation of African‑Creole genealogical records. Beyond the classroom, he has contributed decades of service in sacred‑music leadership—most notably as Director of Music at St. Edward Catholic Church and keyboardist at the Church of Jesus Christ of New Iberia—where his musical and liturgical expertise enrich the region’s cultural heritage.
As a founding board member of the Iberia African American Historical Society, Reedom brings a deep commitment to historical accuracy, archival preservation, and community education. His work continues to advance the Society’s mission of documenting, interpreting, and celebrating the African American experience in Iberia Parish.
Ian Beamish, Ph.D.
Ian Beamish is an Associate Professor of Public History and Director of Public History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He has served on the IAAHS Board since its founding in 2018.
Angie Provost, Ph.D.
Angela “Angie” Provost is an artist and community advocate from New Iberia, Louisiana. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Provost Farm Heritage Center & Community Garden, where her work connects agriculture, history, art, and cultural preservation. Angie is passionate about preserving and sharing the stories of families whose contributions have shaped Iberia Parish and South Louisiana.
Candice L. Harrison, Ph.D.
Dr. Candice Harrison received her PhD from Emory University and is an Associate Professor of African American History at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her current research explores the ascent of six generations of her ancestors from enslaved chattel property to free property holders in early-nineteenth-century Louisiana, as well as their descent to landless tenant farmers and migrants by the mid-twentieth century.