Historians are increasingly playing key roles in the public sphere, as thought leaders, policy advisers, expert witnesses in courts and legislatures, shapers of public history, and consultants on cultural projects, among other endeavors. That role is only growing, as confirmed by the AHA’s recent statement on “Guidelines for Broadening the Definition of Historical Scholarship” (2023). In these pursuits, historians bring their specialized knowledge as researchers and professors into public initiatives, broadening the ways that historical knowledge is advanced and applied. Increasingly, historians have spearheaded the formation of non-profits, research centers, and archival websites as a means of bringing about direct social change. This panel brings together historians and scholars working in this realm, bringing them into conversation with one another and the audience to share their initiatives, discuss strategies, and exchange ideas about the process of translating historical understanding into social change. Catherine Gudis, associate professor of history and director of the public history program at UC Riverside, has worked for years as an advocate for low-income and unhoused people in LA’s Skid Row. She will share her experience in deploying history to shape policy around planning, land use, and zoning, to protect the interests of those living in the Skid Row community in the face of gentrification threats and government neglect. Willow Lung-Amam, associate professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland and a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, directs the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network. She will discuss this initiative to keep small businesses in place in gentrifying neighborhoods, and the strategies and models that have been particularly effective. Stephen Berrey, Associate Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, heads the Sundown Towns Project. This online, public history project documents the history of racial exclusion in communities, suburbs, and small towns across America. In addition to running the Sundown Towns website, which received nearly one million visitors in the last three years, Berrey works with communities on how to respond to their histories of exclusion. Becky Nicolaides, a research affiliate at USC, specializes in the history of American suburbia. Growing directly out of her forthcoming book on the history of suburban life in LA, she is developing “The Suburb Toolkit,” a set of recommendations for suburban communities to promote greater inclusivity and human relations infrastructures. In the context of rapidly diversifying suburbs, she works with community members to raise awareness about their exclusionary histories and to take steps to address those past injustices while fostering closer community ties among diverse neighbors. The chair and commentator for this panel is Marques Vestal, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Critical Black Urbanism at UCLA. As a Faculty Advisor for Million Dollar Hoods, a community-driven and multidisciplinary initiative that archives mass incarceration in LA, and as a historical consultant for the Luskin Center for History and Policy on issues related to housing justice, Vestal will bring rich perspective to the discussion.