For those who imagine that carrying the torch for a famous ancestor would be a burden, Liza Mickens is an object lesson in how to graciously manage that responsibility.
The great-great-granddaughter of Maggie Walker has been a public speaker since the age of 4 when she first delivered a poem at a Junior Achievement Awards dinner. Even before graduating from James Madison University with a degree in communications, she has been the de facto spokesperson for the Maggie Walker family for years.
Her poise and passion have been demonstrated time and again at ceremonies like the unveiling of the Maggie Walker statue on Broad Street in 2017, where she was a featured speaker placing Walker’s singular accomplishments in historical context.
But as devoted as she is to her family’s legacy, Mickens has also forged her own identity. She maintains a keen and contemporary interest in fashion, one that was nurtured by an industry internship in New York after college before she returned to Richmond.
“I think it can be really easy for people to see the work I do and assume I’m trying to do everything that [Maggie Walker] did,” she says. “But I think there’s such value to individuality.”
One effort she’s taken on to forge her own path is co-founding with Kati Hornung the organization Vote Equality US. The nonprofit is working to get the Equal Rights Amendment, which has been fully ratified by the required 38 states, finally added to the United States Constitution.
While she realizes the goals of the organization may be hard to achieve, her sense of history keeps her motivated. “I think about what Maggie Walker must have faced or even her mother who was born enslaved,” she says. “For the people that came before me, there was really no option for them to give up.”
Mickens even brings a historical perspective to her day job as the social media coordinator for the Virginia Tourism Corporation in historical context. “The ‘Virginia is for Lovers’ campaign is such an iconic part of the state’s story,” she says. “As a fifth generation Virginian, sharing all that our state has to offer, it’s really a dream job.”
