2026 Pace Setter Nominees

Dexter D. Evans exemplifies transformational museum leadership, having generated $25 million+ across cultural institutions while pioneering innovative programming that positions the National Museum of African American Music as both Nashville’s premier cultural destination and a nationally recognized authority on African American music heritage.

Since joining NMAAM in September 2022, Dexter has fundamentally transformed institutional advancement, securing $8 million+ in major gift commitments while building sustainable revenue streams through partnerships with Amazon, Nissan, Pepsi, HCA Healthcare, and Mars Petcare. He created NMAAM’s “Where Legends Live Forever” brand positioning and established the museum as the official “Home of Black Music Month,” with programming attracting 25,000+ visitors annually and generating $500,000+ in contributed revenue. His 2024 “Bridge to Broadway Block Party” drew 5,000+ attendees while creative innovations like R&B Bingo consistently sell out, generating sustainable earned revenue.

Dexter pioneered spontaneous artist partnership models blending performance, philanthropy, and preservation. When PJ Morton requested a pop-up show with 24-hour notice, Dexter waived venue fees and converted the sold-out 500-person event into a major gift commitment. He orchestrated Jon Batiste’s inaugural FRONT ROW activation, selling 400 tickets while securing Batiste as a major donor contributing all proceeds to NMAAM. He facilitated Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Over the Rainbow” charity single benefiting NMAAM, filmed entirely on-site during Black Music Month 2025.

His authentic artistic foundation—saxophone player, drum major, lyricist, and stage performer with 15 theatrical productions—provides credible cultural authority for engaging recording artists. Under his leadership, NMAAM has hosted 50+ national artists including 50 Cent, New Edition, Jon Batiste, PJ Morton, and Billy Ray Cyrus. His depth in collections and artifact acquisition through artist engagement has secured significant donations including stage costumes, handwritten setlists, and instruments preserving contemporary Black musical excellence.

Dexter’s creative approach extends beyond traditional museum walls through pop-up museum activations at regional events like the Juneteenth615 celebration and HBCU AwareFest. His legacy programming like “In the Pocket” quarterly artist conversations and emerging artist showcases like “Nashville Unplugged” use intergenerational approaches connecting music pioneers with contemporary artists, advancing both education and entertainment objectives.

His “Musical Gifts” signature event raised $150,000+ in December 2025, establishing Nashville’s largest Giving Tuesday celebration. His leadership of “Soundtrack for All” serves 26,500+ students annually from Title I Metro Nashville Public Schools, while “Free Wednesdays” serves 5,500+ community members annually.

Morgan Lloyd is a public historian, museum professional, and cultural worker. She entered the museum field in 2020 as an intern at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2022, Lloyd co-founded and is the Curator of 1838 Black Metropolis, she leads an internationally regarded, research-driven educational nonprofit that is Philadelphia’s first National Park Reconstruction Network extension and the second in Pennsylvania, appointed in February 2024. She and the collective analyze Pre-Revolutionary through Antebellum histories in the greater Philadelphia region, uncovering 18,798 free Black and People of Color in their title year. Founded in 2022, 1838 Black Metropolis established the first comprehensive curriculum on early and antebellum African American history in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia, curated two major exhibitions, and now serves as an advisor to museums and historical societies nationwide. Her work incorporates ethical AI modeling, producing historically grounded visualizations of ancestors across socio-economic and Black diasporic experiences based on primary sources. She also co-curated and inaugurated the “Black Philadelphia in the 18th and 19th Centuries Conference” with the University of Pennsylvania and The Library Company of Philadelphia. A proud woman of Afro-Indigenous identity, Lloyd also curates programming and advises institutions on Afro-Eastern Woodland histories, advancing inclusive interpretive frameworks within museum, institutional, and public celebrations across the region.

In 2021, Lloyd was awarded a Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, working in the Department of Early American Decorative Arts. And generated a celebrated project on reassessing interpretive initiatives to consider how BIPOC visitors, especially descendants of the artists or historic contributors, interact with the galleries, and how to make Early America more welcoming and holistic.
Since then, she served as a curatorial advisor and trainer for major Black-centric exhibitions, including The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure and Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia. She is a frequent guest lecturer and workshop leader at the University of Pennsylvania on ethical interpretation and restorative justice for descendant communities.

Her work has been presented nationally at conferences, including ASALH and SHEAR, and internationally at a U.N. extension at the University of Lisbon, focusing on Sociomuseology through an African American lens. In 2026, she will create a monument, Extraordinary Ordinary, in Philadelphia through Monument Lab’s Regeneration Cohort Project Grant and Fellowship, honoring the beauty and necessity of the Black ordinary in antebellum and contemporary life.

Lloyd has been the Program Coordinator at the African American Museum in Philadelphia since June 2021.

Kyra March is a Rutgers doctoral student and has curated several groundbreaking and pivotal historical exhibits. During the past several years, Kyra has demonstrated exceptional leadership, problem-solving, and collaboration during her projects. Her general excitement about the museum field and commitment to preserving and telling the African American story is highlighted through the following projects: 1. Exploring the History of Black Church Hats, “The Head That Wears the Crown” at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum in Skillman, NJ. The exhibit features headwear donated by women from Second Calvary Baptist Church in Hopewell, NJ. “This exhibit provided an opportunity for Black women to feel connected, to see themselves, see their families, see stories that relate to them in ways that sometimes we don’t always see,” said March, who was supported by the National Trust for Historic Preservation for her work. The exhibition showcased the spirit of the Black woman in defiance of the 18th century Tignon Laws to identify free women of color. Some of the outcomes of her work have been the much-needed discussion about vital social histories, a better understanding of the history of African American women’s tradition of hat wearing and inspiring the continued hat wearing tradition in the church’s congregation. Kyra is working on traveling the exhibition to different locations in New Jersey in 2026. This will extend the reach of the exhibition and share the hat wearing history with others in New Jersey and beyond. 2. How the land and landscape of Dumbarton Oaks came to be, “ Bound by the Beverleys” at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. This is a Catalogue House exhibit that explores the presence and contributions of enslaved labor in the early 19th century under the Beverley family. This exhibit was paired with the Land as Archive exhibition to serve as the organization’s efforts to launch a more in-depth discussion on how the land and landscape of Dumbarton Oaks came to be and was founded by the Blisses and Farrand. This exhibition was curated by Kyra March during her Humanities Fellowship, 2022–2023 at Dumbarton Oaks and the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition opened in 2024 and is an ongoing Catalogue House exhibition. Other historians and scholarly institutions are beginning to grapple with their histories, most centered on the history the founders, the donors, or the prior inhabitants, this exhibition examined the place itself. The exhibit is a model to look at the full history of a place and its story and how those original stories and places came to be. March is leading the way to show new ways to tell the full story of an historic home. Kyra March embodies AAAM’s values, demonstrating innovation and dedication to AAAM’s calling to preserve, protect, and uplift our stories. 

Lance Wheeler is a museum executive, curator, and cultural strategist whose work reflects the urgency, care, and imagination required to sustain African and African American–focused museums in this era. Since 2017, he has provided visionary leadership across major cultural and civil rights institutions, grounding his work in discipline, innovation, and deep accountability to the communities museums serve.

He currently serves as Vice President of Learning and Engagement at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where he is leading a generational shift in public engagement. Under his leadership, learning and engagement function as core institutional pillars, activating the museum as a living, relational space. His tenure has brought forward innovative educational initiatives, strengthened community partnerships, and expanded opportunities for public participation. Signature programs such as Third Thursday and Wright Here, Wright Now exemplify his ability to pair cultural resonance with operational sustainability.

Guided by the belief that museums serve as spiritual and intellectual bridges between past, present, and future, Lance brings deep curatorial and interpretive expertise to executive leadership. As Director of Exhibitions at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, he oversaw rotations of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection and led cross-institutional partnerships advancing mission-aligned exhibitions and programming.

Earlier in his career, Lance helped build the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the nation’s first state-funded civil rights museum. As its inaugural Curator of Exhibitions, he led exhibition development, docent training, donor engagement, and community collaboration. His work with the Margaret Walker Center and the COFO Civil Rights Education Center reflects a longstanding commitment to place-based, collaborative storytelling.

Nationally, Lance is recognized as a thoughtful convener and trusted voice on museum ethics, representation, and historical interpretation. Through collaborations with the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Council of American Jewish Museums, he has supported institutions navigating complex historical and social questions.

A respected curator and author, Lance has contributed scholarship and nationally recognized exhibitions addressing civil rights history, LGBTQ+ narratives, youth activism, and the legacy of slavery. His clarity of vision, relational intelligence, and national impact distinguish him as a true Pace Setter—embodying the future of museum leadership and the spirit of the Pace Setter Award. 

John Spann has demonstrated tremendous growth throughout his career, and his dedication to his home state of Mississippi is a testament to his commitment to the accurate telling of the story of Black Mississippians. His work with the Mississippi Humanities Council has brought countless new historical markers to the state of Mississippi, as well as a screening of the movie “Sinners” to Clarksdale, where there were no theatres nearby, despite the film being based in the town. John has proven his love of this field and of Black people over the 10-year timespan of his career from his time working at the Two Mississippi Museums until now, and I can’t wait to see what more is in store for him. 

Dr. Wilson is currently the Assistant Curator at the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) and Assistant Professor of Art History and Pan-Africana Studies at Lincoln University – the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU. Michael’s pacesetting during his short time at AAMP is reflected in his consistent hard work, dedication to professional development, and innovative contributions to our field. In 2022 Michael began as our Curatorial Fellow while pursuing his PhD at Temple University. He significantly contributed to developing our nationally recognized exhibition Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America (2023). Contributions included interviews in the exhibition catalog, expanding the artist roster to include the United States Virgin Islands, and, for the first time, activating our two-story ramp wall with a projector that artists utilize for digital artworks. In 2024, he was hired full-time as Assistant Curator. While in this position, Michael built our first-ever Digital Archives Lab, to begin digitizing our collection. He then curated a virtual exhibition, The Pearl Bailey Showcase (2024), featuring digitized archival documents from our Pearl Bailey and Louis Bellson Collection. In March 2023, he created an interactive physical component complementing the virtual exhibition. This is the first major exhibition highlighting the Tony Award-winning entertainer, and since its opening, The Pearl Bailey Showcase has received glowing reviews from both the Philadelphia Tribune and the Inquirer. Michael successfully curated this virtual/physical exhibition while simultaneously curating a separate exhibition titled Shaheed Rucker: (re)Covering the Iconic (2024), honoring key figures throughout Pennsylvania history. The success of this exhibition is reflected in its selection to travel to other institutions throughout Pennsylvania in 2025/2026. Michael’s contributions to AAMP expand beyond curatorial responsibilities. He recently established a partnership between AAMP and Lincoln University, with AAMP receiving paid undergraduate interns who will gain hands-on experience within the museum profession. It is important to note that Michael executed all of this while completing his PhD, presenting his research in Venice, Italy, at the Black Portraitures Conference and in Pittsburgh at the Association of African American Life and History. He also found time to publish an essay in the exhibition catalog LaVaughn Belle: A History of Unruly Returns (2024), an upcoming essay in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Africana Studies (2025), as well as a chapter in the edited volume Unfinished Histories that will be collaboratively published out of Aarhus University and Yale University Press in 2025/2026. His current project at Lincoln University is in collaboration with the Langston Hughes Library, establishing the Black Arts Archive: an interactive digital repository highlighting unseen archival documents from the University’s Special Collections.