Adriane V. Jefferson (She/Her/Hers) is a nationally award-winning Cultural Equity expert, Arts Administrator, and Public Speaker. Initiator of the Cultural Equity Plan in the City of New Haven, she has worked professionally in the Arts & Culture sector for over 18 years, and has dedicated her career to cultural shift advocacy.

Laura A. Macaluso, Ph.D. is a researcher, writer, curator, and proposal writer and reviewer. Recent work includes Monument Culture: International Perspectives on the Future of Monuments in a Changing World (2019), The Public Artscape of New Haven: Themes in the Creation of a City Image (2018) and “New Haven’s Second Centennial Medal and the Origins of City Identity,” Material Culture, Vol. 48, No. 2, Fall 2016: 1-15. She is a lead on the national project, “Revolutionary Houses, Revolutionary Narratives” for the 250th commemoration of the US in 2026, serves on the editorial board of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).

James Mallery, an associate principal with Page & Turnbull, was the project architect for The Cheech; Page & Turnbull was architect of record. He specializes in complex challenges, particularly in adaptive reuse, cultural, and historical buildings. James currently serves as the Los Angeles Office Director. Prior to studying architecture, James completed his Ph. D in San Francisco urban history at UCLA and taught ancient and modern architectural history. James grew up in Riverside and remembers going to this building when it was the Public Library. He recalls the second-floor domes and globe lights seen on a second grade filed trip, and his decision to work on the Cheech was personal. While 1960s-era photos showed well-dressed and well-behaved white children quietly reading, by the 1980s the Main Library was infrequently visited, and like much of downtown remained underutilized. However, in recent years much of downtown Riverside has experienced a revival as historic structures have been restored and popular interest has returned. In this way, for James the adaptive reuse and preservation of the library represents both a return to his childhood home, and a transformation that brought new relevance and cultural meaning to the historic structure.

Hannah Simonson is a Cultural Resources Planner at Page & Turnbull in San Francisco, where she has worked on a range of projects from documenting the significance of the Transamerica Pyramid to developing design guidelines for Eichler neighborhoods. She received a Master of Science in Historic Preservation at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture in 2017 where her thesis, "Modern Diamond Heights: Dwell-ification and the Challenges of Preserving Modernist, Redevelopment Resources in Diamond Heights, San Francisco," was awarded the Outstanding Thesis in Historic Preservation. Her personal and professional research interests include Late Modernism, Bay Area regional Modernism, and San Francisco redevelopment and public art. Hannah is the current board president of the Docomomo US/Northern California chapter. She also regularly gives walking tours of the Modernist enclave of Diamond Heights and manages the Instagram account @moderndiamondheights.