Michael L. Thurmond was the chief executive officer of DeKalb County, Georgia, from 2017 to 2024. He was a finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2025 for his book “James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia.” His other books are “Freedom: Georgia’s Antislavery Heritage, 1733–1865,” and “A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History.” Thurmond previously served in the Georgia legislature, as director of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services, Georgia labor commissioner, and as superintendent of DeKalb schools. In 1997, Thurmond became a distinguished lecturer at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government. He lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, a statewide nonprofit preservation organization based in Rhodes Hall, Atlanta's "Castle on Peachtree."
