Home About ACHP ACHP Membership

Four members of the general public and four historic preservation experts are appointed by the President, including the chairman and vice chairman.

Chairman John L. Nau, III
Houston, Texas (term of office: 2001-2009) (General Public)

In November 2001, John L. Nau, III was appointed by President George W. Bush as Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and was reappointed in 2006.

Nau's commitment to service is apparent through a broad spectrum of participation in civic, community, and philanthropic organizations in Houston and throughout the country. His involvement includes Board of Trustee – Baylor College of Medicine, Director and Executive Committee – Greater Houston Partnership, Board Member – Discovery Green Conservancy, Board Member – National Park Foundation, Chairman, Board of Directors – Civil War Preservation Trust. He also served as the Chairman of the Texas Historical Commission from 1995 through January 2009, a position appointed by the Governor of Texas.

He is president and chief executive officer of Silver Eagle Distributors, L.P., the nation's largest distributor of Anheuser-Busch products and the number one beer distributor in Texas.

Nau is a 1968 graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History. He is the immediate past president of the College Foundation of the University, and Vice Chairman of the UVA Capital Campaign. He also served as Chairman of the College of Arts and Sciences Campaign and on the Board of Managers of the Alumni Association.

He and his wife, Bobbie, reside in Houston. Their family includes two daughters, Victoria Nau Johnson and husband, Parker; and Elizabeth Nau Stepanian and husband Andy, and three grandchildren, Katharine and Reese Stepanian and Liston Johnson.

Vice Chairman Susan S. Barnes
Aurora, Illinois (term of office: 2002-2010) (Expert)

Susan Snell Barnes is the president and CEO of The Landmark Group of Companies, headquartered in an Aurora, Illinois, landmark firehouse. She is founder and owner of the company, which specializes in the acquisition, renovation, and management of its multi-million dollar portfolio of Midwestern historic properties. She represented Illinois on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Board of Advisors from 1993 - 2002, and is now an Advisor Emeritus. Barnes serves on the Chicago Advisory Board of The Trust for Public Land and the board of Landmarks Illinois (formerly Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois) in Chicago. She also serves on the board of Rush-Copley Medical Center and Purdue University's $1.5 billion Capital Campaign Committee. Having worked on the finance committees of several local, state, and federal elected officials, she continues, as she has since 1986, on the congressional finance committee of former Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL). In 2006 she was designated the ACHP's Vice Chairman.

Rhonda Bentz
Washington, DC (term of office: 2006-2010) (General Public)
Rhonda Bentz works for Washington lobbying firm Navigators. Most recently she was vice president for public affairs with Visa USA, Inc., in Washington DC. Since 2000 she directed public affairs programs and served as press spokesperson on public policy and product issues. Prior to assuming that position, she was vice president of public affairs for APCO Worldwide, where she designed and implemented communications, grassroots, political and legislative strategies for issue campaigns. Bentz also has extensive prior experience in the public affairs, corporate, and political consulting fields based primarily in Washington, DC, and Sacramento, California. She has served as a member of campaign steering committees for U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN), and U.S. Representative Tom Feeney (R-FL), as a volunteer for the Bush-Cheney campaign, and in numerous other state and national campaigns.

Julia A. King
St. Mary's City, Maryland (term of office: 2007-2011) (Expert)

Julia A. King is associate professor of archaeology and anthropology at St. Mary's College of Maryland. With more than two decades' experience as an archaeologist, researcher, author, and educator, King holds a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's degree in anthropology from Florida State University, and a bachelor's degree in anthropology and history from the College of William and Mary.

Ann A. Pritzlaff
Denver, Colorado (term of office: 2007-2011) (Expert)

Ann A. Pritzlaff has worked more than 30 years in the field of preservation. She currently serves as a preservation and policy consultant working on historic preservation, public lands, and heritage tourism outreach and policy. For 12 years, she produced and coordinated the Saving Places Conference, an event widely recognized as the leading statewide historic preservation conference in the country. Other notable efforts include creating and coordinating educational events for youth, helping to instigate Colorado’s statewide heritage tourism program, and coordinating state and national preservation policy actions including passage in 2008 of the Colorado state tax credit for historic preservation.

Her career highlights include serving as State Historic Preservation Officer in Arizona, and appointments by Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Gov. Bill Ritter to the State Historic Preservation Review Board and President George W. Bush to serve as a “Historic Preservation Expert” for two four-year-terms on the ACHP, where she also serves as chair of the Preservation Initiatives Committee and on the Executive Committee.

Mark A. Sadd
Charleston, West Virginia (term of office: 2008-2012) (General Public)

Mark A. Sadd is a partner with the law firm of Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins PLLC in Charleston, West Virginia, and has practiced law since 1992. Sadd has had a professional emphasis on real property, zoning, planning, land-use law, taxation, and other matters pertaining to property issues.

John G. Williams, III
Seattle, Washington (term of office: 2008-2012) (Expert)

John G. Williams, III, is a founding partner with Hoshide Williams Architects in Seattle, Washington, and is a member of the American Institute of Architects, Seattle Chapter. For decades, he has been involved professionally and personally with historic preservation issues. Williams is currently chairman of the Washington State Governor's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, is the national vice president of Preservation Action, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, for which he is a former chairman.

John A. Garcia
Albuquerque, New Mexico (term of office: 2007-2009) (General Public)

John A Garcia is chief economic development officer for the University of New Mexico.  He also consults for Grubb & Ellis New Mexico and oversees his management company, Hospitotally.  He is the former Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Tourism and the New Mexico Economic Development Department, and served as the Senior Officer of Cultural Affairs for the state of New Mexico. He has experience on a statewide level in developing cultural tourism.  He received his BBA from the Anderson School of Business at the University of New Mexico. 

A member of an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, a governor, and a mayor are appointed by the President.

John L. Berrey is a member of both the Quapaw Tribe and Osage Nation. He serves as chairman of the Quapaw Tribal Business Committee and the Downstream Development Authority. He is also a fourth-generation rancher on the family’s original allotment on the Osage Reservation located north of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in journalism in 1991, Berrey has held a number of business positions, including several with the Quapaw Tribe.

Governor Mark Sanford
Columbia, South Carolina (term of office: 2009)

Before being elected governor in 2002, Mark Sanford served six years in the U.S. Congress and had no prior political experience before being elected to Congress in 1994. He grew up on a family farm near Beaufort, S.C. His farming background helped make him acutely aware of the need to protect the nation’s natural heritage. He has a B.A. in business from Furman University in Greenville and later received an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and went on to work in real estate finance and investment in New York and Charleston, S.C. More land has been preserved under Sanford’s tenure than during any other governorship in South Carolina.

Mayor Bill Haslam
Knoxville, Tennessee (term of office: 2008-2009) 

Bill Haslam began his first term as mayor of Knoxville in December 2003. Previously, he was president and director of Pilot Corp., a Knoxville-based company operating convenience stores and travel centers nationwide. He also is the former chief executive officer of SAKS Direct, the e-commerce and catalogue division of Saks Fifth Avenue. His historic preservation accomplishments include leading an effort to renovate the historic Bijou Theater and reopen the Tennessee Theatre, working to save the S&W Cafeteria, and initiating a public planning process to create a vision for Knoxville’s South Waterfront. 

Two federal agency heads and the Architect of the Capitol are permanent members of ACHP.

Secretary of the Interior (Hon. Ken Salazar)

Acting Architect of the Capitol (Stephen T. Ayers, AIA)


Seven federal agency heads are designated by the President to terms on ACHP.

Administrator, General Services Administration (Hon. Martha Johnson)

Secretary of Defense (Hon. Robert Gates)

Secretary of Transportation (Hon. Ray H. LaHood)

Secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hon. Shaun Donovan)

Secretary, Department of Commerce (Hon. Gary Locke)

Secretary, Department of Education (Hon. Arne Duncan)

Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs (Hon. Gen. Eric Shinseki)

Ex-officio representatives of national preservation organizations round out ACHP's membership.

Chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (Cliff Hudson)
Designee: Richard Moe, President, National Trust for Historic Preservation

President of the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (Ruth Pierpont)
Designee: Nancy Schamu, Executive Director, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers

ACHP Observers

Designated observers may actively participate in certain activities of the membership, but may not make or second any motion and may not vote.

General Chairman, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (Reno Franklin)
Designee: Janine Bowechop, Vice Chairman

Secretary, Department of Homeland Security (Hon. Janet Napolitano)

Secretary, Department of Energy (Hon. Steven Chu)

Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency (Hon. Lisa Jackson)

Chair, National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (Ann McGlone)

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