Expertise

Curation and Collections Management

I build, steward, and interpret museum collections. I research and acquire objects, verify provenance, and uphold ethical care. I develop exhibitions and write labels and catalog essays that bring stories to life; collaborate with conservators to preserve artifacts; and partner with educators to create programs for diverse audiences. I manage loans; cultivate relationships with artists, scholars, and donors; and oversee budgeting, grant writing, and public outreach—from talks to digital initiatives—to connect people with culture, history, and ideas.

Throughout my museum career, I have been committed to representing and serving diverse communities, histories, and artistic practices. At the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, I worked closely with the Weaver Family Foundation Fund’s “Cummer in the Classroom” program to bring high‑quality art education to North Florida elementary schools with high proportions of students from low‑income families. I also served as a tour guide and art instructor for accessible programs for visitors with low vision, including “Touch Tours” and “Women of Vision.” At the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, I taught Rainbow Artists, an arts initiative for children on the autism spectrum. As Director of the Weeden House Museum, I broadened interpretation to include the lives of enslaved people represented in Maria Howard Weeden’s art and poetry and established an ongoing partnership with Alabama A&M University, a public, historically Black, land‑grant institution. As curator of the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society, I led a multi-year project to preserve the structural integrity of the Bradford House and reinvigorate the family’s history, with a focus on the Bradford daughters and their remarkable lives. I developed new exhibitions, enhanced facilities, and designed engaging programs to better connect the public, broaden inclusivity, and appeal to contemporary audiences. While pursuing my Ph.D. in Atlantic History, I taught at Florida International University—one of the nation’s largest Hispanic‑Serving Institutions—and collaborated with two museums in historically Black neighborhoods to record oral histories and to preserve and digitize photographs, objects, and archival materials for public access.

I have contributed to more than 55 exhibitions, including permanent-collection projects, traveling shows from peer institutions, and exhibitions featuring living artists. The most successful have been thought-provoking, innovative, and educational—challenging how audiences engage with the past and helping those stories endure for future generations.

Digital Curation and Archives

I select, organize, interpret, and present digital content so audiences can discover and engage with it across websites and social platforms. I set strategy and acquisition priorities, evaluate and acquire born-digital and digitized materials, and clear rights and licenses. I structure collections and maintain descriptive, technical, and rights metadata, ensuring findability with tags and taxonomies. I craft narratives, online exhibitions, editorial calendars, and multimedia features for diverse audiences, coordinate design and accessibility, and maintain quality and consistency. I manage copyright and permissions and uphold inclusive, accessible, and culturally responsible practices. I collaborate with curators, educators, digital archivists, conservators, IT, designers, and marketing, supporting community co-curation when appropriate. I promote content through social media, newsletters, and partnerships, and I respond to audience needs and questions.

Historian

I investigate how and why people and societies change over time by asking focused questions, gathering and evaluating evidence, and communicating well-supported interpretations. I analyze primary sources—documents, oral histories, artifacts, images, and datasets—alongside secondary scholarship; place evidence in historical context; reconcile conflicting accounts; and trace cause, continuity, and change. My work spans archives, libraries, museums, and communities; it may involve fieldwork and digital tools like text mining, GIS mapping, and digital curation; and it often includes teaching, public engagement, and advising on policy or preservation. I attend to ethics, rights, and representation, collaborate across disciplines, and write clearly for diverse audiences to make the past usable, nuanced, and inclusive.

My academic research explores how people in early America lived, worked, traded, and imagined their worlds by reading both documents and things. Focusing on material culture—artifacts like textiles, ceramics, furniture, tools, coins, weapons, and adornment, as well as buildings, landscapes, and images—I reconstruct production, exchange, and consumption across Indigenous homelands, European colonies, and African diasporic communities. I pair objects with sources such as probate inventories, account books, ship manifests, advertisements, and diaries to trace craft knowledge, labor systems (including slavery and indenture), cultural exchange, and the meanings people attached to things. My work is interdisciplinary and collaborative, drawing on archaeology, art history, and conservation science and partnering with archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums with attention to provenance and ethical interpretation. Ultimately, I use objects to tell fuller, more inclusive stories about early American power, identity, economy, and everyday life.

Historic Preservation

I safeguard local heritage by identifying and evaluating historic sites, educating the public, and ensuring compliance with preservation laws, often providing technical assistance and policy recommendations to city councils and boards. In roles managing and restoring historic homes and properties in Alabama, Florida, and Massachusetts, I focus on maintaining the cultural integrity of the built environment, bridging practical skills, historical knowledge, and community advocacy to preserve our shared heritage. My work protects and conserves historically significant buildings, sites, objects, and landscapes, ensuring these tangible links to the past endure for future generations. My professional and academic background demonstrates expertise in research, documentation, data management, and restoration, as well as in public education, site identification, and regulatory compliance.

I have worked with more than 30 Early American historic properties dating from roughly 1790 to 1840, spanning Federal through early Greek Revival styles. My practice emphasizes rigorous research; retention of historic fabric, including original wallpaper; restoration of rooms to period-appropriate colors; and compatible, reversible treatments. I begin with thorough documentation and condition assessment, then address structure and enclosure using in‑kind materials and methods. Modern systems and energy upgrades are kept minimally invasive—targeted air sealing in attics and basements, discreet mechanical runs, and well‑fitted storm windows—to balance comfort with authenticity. I prioritize integrated pest management, gentle cleaning, and routine maintenance, and I collaborate with skilled craftspeople while leveraging local protections, easements, and incentives to ensure these houses endure.

Working in the Florida Keys, I focus on preserving the region’s distinctive Conch and maritime vernacular architecture—cigar‑maker cottages and wood‑frame houses of Dade County pine with wraparound porches, shutters, and metal roofs—alongside historic streetscapes, gardens, and working waterfronts. Because hurricanes, humidity, termites, and sea‑level rise are constant pressures, I pair minimally invasive upgrades with resilience measures such as roof‑to‑wall ties, improved flashing and drainage, termite management, and sensitive elevation or flood vents that maintain historic scale and setbacks. Through community partnerships, oral histories, and inclusive interpretation, I connect preservation to the Keys’ Bahamian, Cuban, and maritime heritage, sustaining cultural identity and heritage tourism. Above all, I emphasize regular maintenance—wood repairs, paint, and porch and shutter upkeep—as the most cost‑effective strategy in this harsh coastal environment.

Museum Education

I design and deliver learning experiences that connect diverse audiences with the museum’s collections and ideas—from guided tours and hands-on workshops to family days, lectures, and community outreach. I translate curatorial research into accessible, inclusive content; develop standards-aligned curricula and educator resources; train and support docents and volunteers; and use evaluation to measure impact and strengthen programs. I build partnerships with teachers and community organizations, create digital and multilingual materials to broaden access, and collaborate across departments to ensure every visitor—on site and online—can engage meaningfully with the museum. For K–12, undergraduate, and adult learners, I develop primary-source-based curricula and facilitate dialogue about difficult histories with care and rigor.

Public Historian

I apply historical research and methods in public settings, collaborating with communities to make the past relevant and usable today. I research and interpret primary sources; create exhibits, tours, interpretive plans, and digital projects; and preserve places and collections through surveys, nominations, and cultural resource management. My work often includes conducting and transcribing oral histories, co-creating projects with partners, and writing for broad audiences across print and online platforms. I manage rights and ethics, ensure inclusive and accessible storytelling, and handle project management tasks like grant writing, budgeting, and evaluation to measure impact and improve programs—all with the goal of connecting diverse publics to history in meaningful, responsible ways.

Teaching

As an educator, I create inclusive, student-centered, and well-managed active-learning environments. I design assignments that cultivate close reading and visual/material analysis; use transparent rubrics; and provide timely, formative feedback on essays and projects to support iterative improvement. I also develop accessible digital humanities experiences—collaborative annotation, digital curation, mapping, and data-informed inquiry—that deepen engagement with primary sources and build transferable skills. My experience at Florida International University—an institution serving more than 56,000 undergraduates, with roughly 70% multilingual and international students representing over 120 countries—equips me to support a richly multicultural, multilingual student body through inclusive pedagogy that fosters belonging and achievement. Beyond the classroom, I mentor students in research methods and academic planning and partner with campus units and cultural institutions to create experiential learning that connects course themes to archives, museums, and community events. My scholarly and curatorial practice grounds my teaching, emphasizing critical thinking, cultural analysis, and the interpretation of texts, images, and objects as historical evidence. I guide students to think like historians—pose precise questions, analyze qualitative and quantitative evidence, and communicate findings clearly to varied audiences. I am expanding the role of digital humanities in my courses and scholarship to enrich learning, streamline research workflows, bridge STEM and the humanities, and connect students to diverse cross-disciplinary communities. For example, students analyze transatlantic ship manifests and demographic datasets to investigate migration and enslavement, visualize routes with GIS, and present findings through research posters or micro-exhibits—building critical thinking, data literacy, and strong written and oral communication.

Commitment to Diversity