Meet the 2026 Annual Conference Speakers

Preservation North Carolina’s 2026 Conference speakers and session leaders offer a wide range of voices and talent in the field. And below is just a sampling. High Point’s conference will bring together more than 40 professionals from architects to historians to city planners to builders to craftsmen, all of whom bring a fresh perspective to preservation. Get to know them here.

The 2026 Marion S. Covington Keynote Speaker: Victor Dover

Victor Dover, FAICP, LEED-AP, CNU Fellow
Founding Principal and President | Dover, Kohl & Partners

This year, we’re looking forward to having Victor Dover, Principal and President, Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning, as our Annual Conference keynote speaker. Dover is a nationally acclaimed leader and innovator in city planning, neighborhood design, and street design. Trained as an architect, his work combines design excellence with professional pragmatism, bringing thoughtful planning and design to projects around the world. A longtime leader in the New Urbanism movement, Dover has helped advance an approach to urban planning and design that creates more livable, walkable, and sustainable communities through pedestrian-friendly design, mixed land uses, and transit-oriented development. With John Massengale, Dover coauthored the highly influential Street Design: The Secrets of Great Cities and Towns (Wiley, 2014), as well as its newly published second edition (Wiley, 2026). In 2024, he and his partner, Joe Kohl, received the Seaside Prize, which recognizes individuals whose life’s work and accomplishments are emblematic of the Institute’s mission to inspire livable communities. In 2025, Victor was awarded the Addison Mizner Medal for Service by the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture (ICAA). He is a Fellow of both the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), and serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami. We’re excited to welcome Victor to North Carolina and look forward to hearing his perspective on creating places that are beautiful, connected, and built to last.

Meet Some of Our 2026 Session Leaders

This year’s session speakers draw from both professional and personal ties to historic preservation, which they’ll share with conference attendees in both field and on-site sessions. Expect to explore a myriad of subjects, from as specific as stone masonry and historic window restoration to broader timely topics like Section 106 and navigating urban growth. Some will guide us on foot to explore High Point’s most stunning historic properties. Others will discuss the importance of preserving structures we sometimes overlook, like train depots and institutional facilities. It’s a privilege to have each of these historic preservation professionals and advocates in the field at this year’s conference, who are as skilled as they are passionate. Check them out below.