Dr. Billy Joe Peyton

.Billy Joe Peyton is Professor of History at West Virginia State University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2000. Peyton’s primary areas of expertise include Modern U.S. History, West Virginia and Appalachian History, Historic Preservation, and Public History. He received his M.A. (1985) and Ph.D. (1999) in History from West Virginia University. 
During his public history career, Peyton has worked at Prickett’s Fort State Park (Fairmont, WV), WSWP-TV (PBS affiliate in Beckley, WV), National Park Service (Thurmond, WV and Vicksburg, MS), West Virginia Division of Culture & History (Clifftop, WV), West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV), PDM & Associates (historic architectural firm in Charleston, WV), and as a consultant on dozens of state and local history projects. Publication credits include entries in the West Virginia Encyclopedia (2006), a chapter in The National Road: The Road & American Culture (1996), and two local history books, Charleston Then and Now (2010) and Charleston: The First 225 Years (2013). He has worked on numerous documentary films, including Red Salt & Reynolds (2003), Ghosts of Green Bottom (2005), and West Virginia Standing Together: The Humanities and the Experience of War (2016), and The States: West Virginia (2007) that airs on the History Channel. Peyton is active as a speaker and consultant, serves as chair of the Charleston Historic Landmarks Commission, and is a member of the West Virginia Humanities Council board of directors.