My Projects

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Working closely with Thinking Nation's curriculum writers, EMCM is identifying DC museums, historic sites, archives, and libraries that can contribute object-, place-, and document-based resources to each unit in a 7-12 social studies curriculum  for a consortium of DC charter schools.

With Kristin Gallas of MUSE Consulting, I am working with King's Chapel, a stop on the Freedom Trail and an operating Unitarian Christian parish, to support the staff in re-imagining their public history program, including creation of interpretive, business, and operating plans.

I edited teacher-created lesson plans for their Warning Signs project to support the Lincoln Presidential Foundation's teacher resource development. For their Fortifying Our Democracy project, I created learning resources grounded in Lincoln's 1838 Lyceum address that live on the New American History site. My experience as a history teacher and years working closely with teachers give me a deep understanding of what teachers and students need from cultural organizations.

As a member of the Board of Literacy InterActives, an all-volunteer organization, I serve as a "linked descendant" supporting the founder, whose ancestors were enslaved by my ancestors on a Southside Virginia plantation, Prestwould. Under her leadership, I support the preservation of a cabin lived in by her family for almost 100 years that sits on the edge of the former estate. I managed the redevelopment of the project's website, launching in December 2023.

Working with ICSC, I co-led a workshop for the Central Connecticut State University public history and teacher education programs to support development of a new course for teacher candidates using place-based learning to strengthen their content knowledge and understanding of diverse histories across their state.

In 2007, I created the department of education at Ford's Theatre, partnering closely with the National Park Service to design programs, create exhibitions, and develop resources that have made the site more relevant to a local audience and made it more accessible to national and international visitors. Leading a team of five full-time and many contractors, we developed two award-winning summer teacher institutes and a long-term national teacher program, the National Oratory Fellows, that created the Ford's Approach to Teaching Oratory. Additionally, I oversaw creation of our first interpretive plan, working in partnership with the Park Service and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, we re-framed Ford's Theatre as a place that stands in opposition to political violence like that John Wilkes Booth perpetrated at the theatre, and as a place to explore memorialization. We created the collaborative digital exhibition, Remembering Lincoln, and I co-led development of an institutional digital strategy. As a member of the senior leadership team, I worked closely with the Directors of Development, Finance, and Marketing to identify earned and contributed revenue streams, managing a team of up to five staff and 15 contract educators.