Tom Costa is Department Chair and Professor of History at the University of Virginia – Wise. He is the director of the Geography of Slavery in Virginia project of the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia. This is a comprehensive online database of runaway slave advertisements from colonial and antebellum Virginia. Dr. Costa has participated in summer programs sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and has helped secure teaching and research grants from the NEH, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Nominated in the past for the SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award, he has also been a past Fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. He was awarded the Harrison Distinguished Faculty Award in 2011.