David Bearinger retired as Senior Director of Grants and Global Virginia Programs at Virginia Humanities in August 2022 and now works as an independent public humanities consultant and writer. For more than 35 years, he coordinated regional and community development efforts at Virginia Humanities and the awarding of more than 4,000 grants in excess of $10 million, reaching every city and county in the state. In 2017-18, he conceived and directed “Immigration Stories,” a series of video-recorded conversations with immigrants and refugees from 29 different countries, resulting in a major exhibition (“New Virginians”) developed in partnership with the Library of Virginia and American Evolution. He has served on the Advisory Boards of The Dream Project, Prio Bangla; Mongolian House International/World Peace Center; and as an advisor to the Columbia Pike Documentary Project in Arlington. Before moving to Virginia in 1983, David was a non-fiction Editor with Doubleday & Company, based in New York. He is the co-author of Dreams and Shadows: An Immigrant’s Journey by Emma Violand-Sanchez (March 2025, Koehler Books) and the founder and director of the Federal Recognition Recording Project, a series of recorded conversations with current and former chiefs of Virginia’s federally recognized Native tribes.