By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Historic Salisbury Foundation announced Tuesday that Brian M. Davis will be its new executive director.
“Brian comes from a strong preservation organization in Galveston, Texas, with an education and preservation background that fits our mission for Salisbury,” foundation President Susan Sides said in a press release.
Davis, the current preservation services director of Galveston Historical Foundation, was selected after a three-month process conducted by the foundation’s search committee.
“I’m very excited to be joining a dedicated team of staff and volunteers and continuing to build on the accomplishments of Historic Salisbury Foundation,” Davis said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the board to set some goals and a road map for achieving them.”
The final four candidates for the Historic Salisbury job emerged from 32 applicants representing 13 states. The finalists were interviewed by both the search committee and the full board.
Doug Black, vice president, served as chairman of the search committee.
“They were all very strong, good people,” he told the Post.
Davis, a native of Louisiana, is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. He was a practicing architect in Houston and Galveston before joining Galveston Historical Foundation in 2002.
He has served on the board and steering committee of Galveston Historical Foundation and is a member of the board of the statewide organization Preservation Texas.
Davis also served on the city of Galveston’s building standards commission and was its chair. He has been responsible for saving and preserving many historic buildings in Galveston as director of the foundation’s active revolving fund.
His preservation work includes the Green Revival House, an 1891 cottage that received the LEED for Homes platinum rating as well as local, state and national preservation awards. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Davis is the author of the book “Lost Galveston.”
“We were struck with the close parallels of the programs of the two organizations — ours and Galveston’s,” Sides said.
“Both have a long record of preservation advocacy, neighborhood revitalization, using a revolving process that has saved over 70 historic properties, a major house tour started in the 1970s and the long-term operation of several historical landmarks for the public benefit.”
Black said Davis would start April 2.
Since September 2010, the foundation had seen two directors and an interim director leave the non-profit organization.
David Post left as interim director in November 2011. Cynthia Cole Jenkins served as executive director for only four months in 2011 until taking a leave of absence for personal reasons, then resigning.
Jack Thomson had been executive director for several years until he left in September 2010 for a preservation job in Asheville.
This year, Historic Salisbury Foundation is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.