Professor Ayers has been named National Professor of the Year, received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama at the White House, won the Bancroft,  Beveridge, and Lincoln prizes in American history, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, served as president of the Organization of American Historians, and worked as the founding chair of the board of the American Civil War Museum. He is executive director of New American, dedicated to sharing innovative work in words, maps, audio, and video with broad audiences and the nation’s schools. His latest book is Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American Past, 1790–2020. Formerly, he served as Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia.