James Perla is Managing Director of the Citizen Justice Initiative. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Perla has worked on digital archives, podcast series, and interactive essays. Perla contributes extensively to event planning, interdepartmental collaborations, and documentation for Citizen Justice programming as well as co-sponsored programs with other entities at the University of Virginia. He is also the senior producer of the “Notes on the State” podcast series, produced for UVA’s Bicentennial. The project explores Thomas Jefferson’s history in more complex dimensions, focusing in particular on issues of race, citizenship, and democracy. During his tenure with the Citizen Justice Initiative, Perla has published a multimedia essay about the history of white supremacy in Charlottesville, managed an annual summer research assistantship for high school and undergraduate students, and has presented at workshops, academic conferences, and panel discussions at University of Maryland, University of Richmond, and University of Virginia. Prior to his work in academia, Perla freelanced as a podcast producer working for non-profit organizations and media companies such as the Amazon Conservation Team, Backstory at Virginia Humanities and Marketplace from American Public Media.