Tom Ward is chair of the History Department at Spring Hill College where he teaches a variety of courses in American history, including American Environmental History. A native of Annapolis, Maryland, Dr. Ward received his education at Hampden-Sydney College (B.A., 1991), Clemson University (M.A., 1993), and the University of Southern Mississippi (Ph.D., 1999). He has written a number of articles on African-American history and the history of medicine, including Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South (University of Arkansas Press, 2003), and his most recent work, Out in the Rural: A Mississippi Health Center and its War on Poverty (Oxford University Press, 2017). He has also served for a number of years on the board of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, which is dedicated to improving and protecting Alabama’s coastal environment through cooperation, education, and participation, including four years as board president.