Warm Welcome

In April, Indiana Landmarks welcomed Brad Ward as new president and CEO, just the fourth person to hold the position since the organization’s founding in 1960. A Jasper native with a background in community foundations and place-based philanthropy, Ward brings local and national experience in fostering partnerships to help revitalize historic places.

From 2008 to 2012, Ward led the Huntingburg Foundation in Huntingburg, Indiana, working with board leaders to guide a merger with the Dubois County Community Foundation. He served as CEO of the merged foundations until 2016, leading redevelopment of a vacant parking lot adjacent to Huntingburg’s 1887 Old Town Hall into a vibrant urban park and working with community leaders and business owners to adapt an underused nineteenth-century building in downtown Huntingburg as a co-working space known as Current Blend. In the role, he also helped form and advise The Next Act, a group that guided rehabilitation of Jasper’s 1936 Astra Theatre as a live entertainment and performance venue.

“Seeing mostly empty buildings transformed into vibrant destinations that are central to the character and vitality of wherever they are located has been important to me for a long time,” says Ward.

He took the knowledge he gained in Indiana to his next job as lead strategist at the Council on Foundations, where he traveled the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean to help strengthen local community foundations and Main Street groups, overseeing programs providing professional development, public policy, and legal services for council members of the nonprofit association. Ward most recently served as the national director for community foundations at Foundant Technologies, a philanthropy-tech firm that supports foundations and community grantmakers.

Ward credits these experiences with shaping how he thinks about the role historic places play in shaping community identity and creating robust local economies. “I was engaged in preservation work without realizing that’s what I was doing,” he says. “That’s inspiring to me in connecting with others who have an interest in history and old buildings but who may not consider themselves traditional preservationists. There’s a place for all of us that care about our communities.”

For the past few years, Ward has lived with his family in Summerville, South Carolina —a historic town located outside of Charleston, a city renowned for its rich history of community-based preservation. He found inspiration in the way Preservation Society of Charleston advocates for thoughtful, collaborative development of its historic buildings as community assets and raises awareness of lesser-celebrated landmarks.

In Summerville, Ward served on the board of the Public Works Art Center in the town’s historic post office adapted as an art gallery and host events, summer camps, and artist studios. “I enjoyed being part of the community’s vision to expand access and use of this repurposed historic building as a downtown anchor to continue to serve as a space where people would gather,” says Ward.

“In our conversations in Charleston, Brad has impressed me as a natural convener of people. He has seen firsthand and can speak eloquently to the power older places play in our lives and bring us together,” says Brian Turner, president and CEO of Preservation Society of Charleston. “Indiana Landmarks is fortunate to have this talented young leader at its helm as it builds on its legacy as one of the nation’s most impactful statewide preservation organizations.”

An executive search committee considered more than 60 candidates from around the country before selecting Ward, whose appointment was unanimously approved by Indiana Landmarks’ board of directors.

“Brad’s experience in engaging public-private partnerships both in Indiana and around the country speaks directly to Indiana Landmarks’ work to support grassroots preservation efforts as a tool for community revitalization,” said Doris Anne Sadler, chair of the search committee. “The committee was impressed by his passion for preservation as well as his broader vision of the role preservation plays in enhancing a sense of place—connecting Hoosiers to the past while looking to the future.”

“Returning to Indiana to lead the largest and arguably most respected private statewide preservation organization in the country is a dream job beyond comparison,” said Ward. “Nothing speaks to me like the opportunity to serve a mission focused on preserving and repurposing places deeply connected to communities and their heritage.”

This article first appeared in the May/June issue of Indiana Preservation, Indiana Landmarks’ member magazine.