Dr. O Alfred Brown, Sr.
Mr. Brown brings his extensive knowledge as a retired professor and administrator at California State University, Sacramento from 1973 through 2001.
He serves as treasurer of the Nathaniel S. Colley, Sr Civil Rights Coalition which has a mission to recognize the contributions of community leaders that has helped improve the living conditions and lives in Sacramento, California and the United States of America, through legal cases and community action.
As a professor emeritus from California State University, Sacramento from 1973 through 2001 he brings strong administrative skills to the coalition.
He presently serves as a board trustee for Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), Area 5. In this capacity he helped obtain approval from SCOE to name a school in Mr. Colley’s honor.
His non-profit experience includes volunteering as a former board member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento, California and founder of a California Fairplay, a non-profit corporation that provides free camp to 80 to 100 children (ages 6 through 12 years) who suffer with mild to severe asthma.
He presently serves as a community advisory member to Call mom from 2005 to the present with Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), under the leader ship of Dr. Nathan Kupperman, MD.
Dr. Jesus Hernandez
Urban sociologist Dr. Jesus Hernandez brings to the coalition a keen understanding of social problems that affect community cohesion, neighborhood development, and quality of life.
His work highlights the importance of equitable urban and environmental planning, housing finance, and public policy in building effective neighborhood-based economic development strategies.
The urgency to connect neighborhoods to policy, planning, and funding resulted in JCH Research, a consulting firm he created to provide flexibility in connecting academic research and macro-scale urban policy to the on-the-ground practice of sustainability and climate change at the neighborhood scale.
His current research centers on using neighborhood-based energy and housing planning to implement climate change and sustainable community strategies in neighborhoods experiencing long-term disinvestment and poverty.
He also assists nonprofit agencies with research on housing, neighborhood-based energy planning, public health, and sustainable community strategies.
These experiences, coupled with academic training in urban sociology, economic geography, and race relations, and over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry provide a unique set of tools for analyzing the effects of race and place in Sacramento.
Mr. Hernandez formerly taught at University of California, Davis.
Clarence Caesar
Mr. Caesar bring a long career in historical research to the Colley Civil Rights Coalition, primarily focused on black history of the Sacramento region. Currently retired from the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation, he worked for 14 years as a historian for the department’s Office of Historic Preservation and also as a grant administrator with the Office of Grants and Local Services.
Mr. Caesar’s career in history has allowed him to serve as a community college instructor, lecturer, researcher, consultant, a guest curator for five exhibits on African Americans in the Sacramento Valley and California, and a member of the Sacramento City-County Museum and History Commission from 1985-1990.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Sacramento History Alliance, a support body for the Center for Sacramento History and the Sacramento History Museum.
He is also a member of the Colley Civil Rights Coalition, a non-profit organization, where he is dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Nathaniel Colley, Sacramento’s first black practicing attorney and a prominent local and national figure in the fight for equal housing and other civil rights struggles of the mid-20th Century, along with other important leaders in Sacramento’s black community.
He has an M.A. degree in History from California State University, Sacramento and a B.A. degree in History from the University of California, Davis. His master’s thesis, “An Historical Overview of the Black Community of Sacramento, California: 1850-1983” (1985), is a comprehensive examination of the historical development of what is now the Central Valley’s largest African American population. His thesis was the basis for two documentaries presented on KVIE Channel 6 entitled “African Americans in California’s Heartland” which were originally aired in 2005 and 2007. These documentaries continue to be shown annually on KVIE.
Mr. Caesar has also appeared in several locally produced television documentaries and podcasts that have focused on subjects as wide ranging as the involvement of Sacramento’s black community in the Sacramento region’s earliest development, and its efforts to address the social and economic inequalities that shaped where and how it has grown and developed.
Roxanne L. Miller
Roxanne Miller is one of the original board members of the coalition. She brings both political and government expertise to the Coalition.
She was the first registered woman state lobbyist and represented the City of San Jose before the California State Legislature and State Agencies for over 40 years and with 11 mayors and councils.
She successfully obtained funding and passed legislation that helped the City of San Jose grow into the 3rd largest city in California.
She brings knowledge of state administrative procedures, government agencies, and state budget and funding processes. She successfully obtained funding for the City’s priorities: the San Jose Airport, the Arena, redevelopment of downtown San Jose and High-Speed Rail redirection to San Jose.
In addition, she has hands-on experience at the local government level. She was a board member and Chair of the City of Sacramento’s Design and Review Board and served for over 10 years and under three mayors. The board reviewed and commented on architectural and functional design of all major development projects in the downtown core.
She reviewed and approved development projects and helped develop city design policies that were approved by the City Council. Working as a local citizen, she brought together coalitions that created improvement plans for both Freeport Blvd and the Broadway Corridor within the City.
She is a graduate of Utah State University with a B.A. in Journalism, and a minor in Art.
Chris Lango, Consultant
Chris Lango is an experienced producer, writer, researcher and narrator. He works as an advisor and content creator for the Nathaniel S. Colley, Sr. Civil Rights Coalition.
Mr. Lango’s career has spanned over 30 years. Most of that time was spent as a sports producer for television stations in Detroit, Hartford and Sacramento. During his 15 years at KCRA in Sacramento, he produced the station’s sportscasts as well as special series and feature programs. In addition, he led the station’s landmark coverage of high school sports.
Since 2009, Mr. Lango has worked as an independent producer, writer and researcher. In that capacity, he has created several projects for the Center for Sacramento History, most notably two documentary television programs.
The first film, “The Time Is Now,” spotlights Nathaniel Colley, Sacramento’s first private-practicing African-American attorney and recognized as “Mr. Civil Rights of California.” That film received an Emmy nomination in 2014.
The second program, “Replacing the Past,” examines the gains and losses during the redevelopment of downtown Sacramento during the 1950s and 60s. The Sacramento Valley Chapter of the American Planning Association honored “Replacing the Past” with its Local Vision Award – recognizing the program for making an outstanding contribution toward creating better communities throughout the Sacramento region.
Mr. Lango’s work for the Colley Civil Rights Coalition includes producing a 12-part video series entitled “New Helvetia Residents Memories,” which focuses on the living experiences of a group of diverse, former residents of Sacramento’s oldest public housing projects during the last half of the 20th century.
He is currently working with the Coalition and the Center for Sacramento History on a series about Sacramento’s historic fight for fair housing.
In addition, Mr. Lango was awarded a Seeding Creativity grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Sacramento Office of Arts and Culture to produce an independent film about Sacramento’s Virna Canson, hailed by the NAACP and the Black Press as the Mother of Civil Rights in the West.
Daniel Visnich
Dan Visnich is a founding member of the Nathaniel S. Colley, Sr. Civil Rights Coalition. He, along with Dr. Marion Woods, established the non-profit corporation in 2017 and has been on its board since its inception.
He also serves as the Executive Officer of the California Capitol Historic Preservation Society. Before that he served 33 years in a variety of positions for the California State Legislature.
Mr. Visnich received his B.A. cum laude in History at the University of the Americas in Mexico City in 1961 and obtained his M.A. at the University of California at Berkeley while reporting for UPI on the 1964 Free Speech Demonstrations.
His extensive education has included International Studies at Georgetown University and history at the University of Belgrade and the National University of Mexico.
He brings his extensive experience as an authority in matters of historic and architectural preservation as well as political science to the Colley Coalition. He has made presentations to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Capitol Affinity Group, and the Decorative Arts Forum of Northern California, the Texas Historical Commission, the Arts and Culture Committee of the National Conference of State Legislature, the Crocker Art Museum, the California Historic Preservation Conference, the Albany Institute of History and Arts at Albany, NY, and “Experts at the [Iolani] Palace” in Honolulu, to name a few.
He is a long-time, active member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
Known for his political insight on the approach to preservation issues, Mr. Visnich was recognized for his initiative and effectiveness as Senate Owner Representative throughout the $74 million California Capitol Restoration Project from 1976 to 1982. He was the Executive Director of the State Historic Capitol Commission from 1983 until his retirement in 1997.
Mr. Visnich administered and monitored all projects affecting the architectural and historical integrity of the State Capitol complex. He sought out and obtained historic paintings, antiques and other furnishings for the historic Capitol, including tracking down and returning original 19th century Capitol furnishings.
Luree Stetson
Luree Stetson has over 35 years of legislative and policy experience at the state and local government levels.
She was a Legislative Advocate for the California Municipal Utilities Association, California Energy Commission and the Department of Conservation and Senior Executive for the California Strategic Growth Council and the was a Deputy Secretary at California Resources Agency.
She also has knowledge of the internal workings of the California Legislature, as a former Legislative Director in the State Assembly. Her advocacy skills and administrative knowledge such as grant writing and grant administration are an asset to the coalition.
She established several non-profit corporations, including the Land Park Community Association, Greater Broadway Partnership and Upper Land Park Neighbors Association. As a board member, she promoted neighborhood issues, preservation of historic buildings, and coordination with business community before the City of Sacramento and other regional governmental entities.
She coordinated and successfully obtained certification of the New Helvetia Historic District (aka Elder Grove Public Housing), the site of Nathaniel Colley’s first legal fight against segregation in Sacramento in 1952.
She also advocated before the State Legislature and obtained $2 million to renovate the State Capitol Fountain, which was proposed for demolition.
She graduated from San Francisco State, with a B.A. in International Relations, and a minor in Political Science.