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More than fifteen years experience in public history, leading initiatives for museums, archives, and cultural institutions.
For fifteen years I have had the privilege to lead many public history programs and projects in government, academia, museums, libraries and archives.
Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest
I have the honor to be the inaugural director of a new academic center at Villanova University that brings historical scholarship and historical perspective to bear on contemporary global issues.
The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress
As a Program Specialist for The John W. Kluge Center, we brought scholars and researchers from around the world to the Library of Congress to use our collections, and then shared their research with policymakers and the public.
More than 100 scholars per year from around use the world's largest repository of knowledge to inform research of historical, societal and cultural significance. The Kluge Center communicates to Members of Congress, federal agency policymakers, the media, and the world why this scholarship matters, and what it teaches us about our world. Through an array of programs--including lectures, symposia, and book talks--we share the research created by these leading scholars interacting with our remarkable collections as part of the Library's mission to share its knowledge with the public and help sustain a well-informed democracy.
Library of Congress Veterans History Project
As a Liaison Specialist for the Veterans History Project, we worked to build a nationwide network of volunteers to record the stories of America's war veterans and contribute them to the Library of Congress.
Over the course of 2.5 years, we developed a program with American Red Cross chapters in Texas, California, and a dozen other states to train volunteers in the recording of veterans stories and connect them with veterans in their communities. The result was a more than 6,000% in the number of veterans stories collected by Red Cross volunteers and donated to the Library of Congress. We also worked with dozens of Congressional offices to collect veterans stories in states and districts nationwide, as well as numerous veterans and service organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Legion, and Jewish War Veterans.
Proud to have served as the Exhibitions Assistant, Assistant Curator and Travel Curator for the award-winning "Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War." This ground-breaking exhibit used the oral histories of 450 Jewish veterans to tell the experience of Jewish soldiers in their words. The show received the Grand Prize for Excellence in Exhibitions from the American Association of Museums.
In conjunction with the American History Workshop, this first-of-its-kind exhibition examined Lincoln's political, economic and strategic relationship with New York City before and during his Presidency. Called "compellingly informative" by the New York Times, the exhibit was on display at the New-York Historical Society.
Curator of a special exhibition at the Center for Jewish History on the history and culture of Iraqi Jewry.
Proud to have served as the Exhibitions Assistant, Assistant Curator and Travel Curator for the award-winning "Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War." This ground-breaking exhibit used the oral histories of 450 Jewish veterans to tell the experience of Jewish soldiers in their words. The show received the Grand Prize for Excellence in Exhibitions from the American Association of Museums.
Museum Exhibitions
I've had the good fortune to manage nearly all aspects of museum exhibitions large and small in numerous roles: project manager, exhibit coordinator, curator, historian, researcher, and registrar. Exhibition credits include "Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War," at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and "Lincoln and New-York" at the New-York Historical Society.
Awards and recognition include: "Ours to Fight For" being awarded the Grand Prize for Excellence in Exhibitions by the American Alliance of Museums; the Southeast Florida Library Information Network Innovation Award for work on the Archbishop John C. Favalora Museum at St. Thomas University; and "Lincoln and New York" at the New-York Historical Soceity being called "compellingly informative" by The New York Times and "ambitious and generally excellent" by the New York Observer.
Archives
As a certified archivist, I have managed archival collections and enabled the records of the past to be organized, preserved, and made accessible for future generations. I've helped to create the archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum and Library, and in 2006, I traveled to Sosua, Dominican Republic, and created the Archive of the Museo Judio de Sosua.
From 2008 - 2009, I was the personal archivist for author and New York Living Legend Barbara Goldsmith. I worked with Ms. Goldsmith and the New York Public Library to prepare her collection of novels, scripts, correspondence, and other papers for transfer to NYPL to become the Barbara Goldsmith collection.
Special Projects
Working with staff at all levels to get important projects completed and move institutions forward is one of the most fun challenges I've had in my career. At Yeshiva University, the Vice President for Communications brought me in on a contract basis from 2007 to 2009 to lead three important institutional projects.
The most complex and significant of the projects was the implementation of R25 enterprise-wide across Yeshiva's two Manhattan campuses, as well as Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Cardozo School of Law. The project necessitated the buy-in of stakeholders ranging from the Board of Directors down through managers and staff to adapt a new program, workflows, and sharing of information that had been traditionally siloed. Under my leadership the successful implementation took 6 months; previously it had stalled for more than 2 years.