Prof. Emeritus, David R. Mertz served as the director of the Building Preservation/Restoration Program at Belmont College in St. Clairsville, OH, a post he held since the program's inception in 1989 until his retirement in 2023.  The Belmont Program is seen as a national model for trades-based technical education in historic preservation and has been copied across the country. Mr. Mertz has been an active participant in the development of historic preservation on a local, state and national level. He has served four years as Chair of the National Council for Preservation Education, the consortium of colleges and universities that offer undergraduate and graduate programs in historic preservation, and four years as Chair Emeritus.  He has served on the advisory board of the Preservation Leadership Institute of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the editorial board of Preservation Forum, the nation’s scholarly journal on Historic Preservation and has authored numerous articles in national publications relating to trades education. He has served as a board member and vice-president for both Heritage Ohio and the Ohio Preservation Alliance, Ohio’s two state-wide preservation non-profits. Mertz has served as President and Vice-President of the Preservation Trades Network and was awarded their 2014 Askins Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the Preservation Trades. In 2017 he was honored with the James Marston Fitch Lifetime Achievement Award for his impact on historic preservation education in America by the National Council for Preservation Education. He is a graduate of Kansas State University with a bachelors and master’s degree in architecture and a certificate in Regional & Community Planning.  Mertz lectures frequently on building pathology and American architectural history.  He now resides in Kent, OH with his wife, Roberta and their dogs and cat and is a member of the Kent City Council’s Citizen committee on Preservation and Design.