As a board member of numerous organizations, and a loyal supporter of VFH’s annual fund since 1994, Anna Lawson understands the crucial role of unrestricted support for a nonprofit organization. “Unrestricted giving keeps the lights on, the bills paid,” she says. “Many donors seem to find new buildings, professorships, threatened wetlands compelling—and they are; but we must have those annual dollars for operations.”

In September, Anna and her husband, Tom, committed to supporting the With Good Reason radio program with a multi-year pledge.

“WGR connects audiences with research and innovation going on right here on our Virginia campuses,” she explains. She emphasizes that radio, specifically NPR, is a constant in her life and “my solid source for information and entertainment.” With the growing options from satellite and Internet radio, she sees the medium becoming increasingly important in our society.

“Unrestricted giving keeps the lights on, the bills paid” -Anna Lawson

Anna notes the three-pronged attraction of VFH for her as a Board member and supporter.

• Community Programs: “To my knowledge, a decade ago, nobody was doing Virginia Indian, African American history, or Virginia folklife like VFH, particularly for broad dissemination,” Anna says. She believes having these programs, and many others under the umbrella of the humanities, is crucial.
• Grants: The social and economic impacts that VFH funds make to projects and organizations across Virginia is remarkable. Anna believes “such grants are seed money for a program at a tiny rural library, or the restoration of a long-abandoned, but historically important, school.”
• Staff: And essential to the above, is the VFH staff who “seem to live and breathe the humanities, whether it’s a part of their daily job duties or not,” according to Anna.

Anna Lawson’s affection for the humanities stems from growing up in Salem where she lived in a house full of books, reading, and music.

“My brothers and I were expected to get liberal arts degrees,” she says, citing her late mother, a Hollins philosophy major who studied the violin and went on to teach English, as a huge influence. She remembers picking up the volume, Gods, Graves, and Scholars, at about age 11, a selection of her mother’s book club. “It was about classical archaeology and explored different cultures as discovered from excavations,” she recalls. “Maybe the seed was planted then that led to my Hollins senior thesis on Joseph Campbell and, many years later, to an anthropology doctorate at UVA.”

Anna joined the VFH Board in 1998, served seven years, and chaired during 2004-2005, taking a leadership role, as she had on the boards of Hollins University, Family Service of Roanoke Valley, and Total Action Against Poverty (TAP). She is currently a trustee of the Virginia Chapter of Nature Conservancy, which she chaired 2005 – 09, and serves on the boards of the Virginia Historical Society, the Virginia Environmental Endowment, and the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation.

Although dedicated to conservation, education, and social justice, Anna is quick to point out that competing with her community involvement is her role as grandmother of five, two who live in Charlottesville and three in New York. “The stimulation of these young minds can be as powerful as those interviews on With Good Reason!” Anna emphasizes.