About

I'm a museum professional and an historian, and a 2012 graduate of the Tufts University Museum Studies program, with a master's degree in History & Museum Studies. I've held committee and leadership positions with both the American Association for State and Local History and the New England Museum Association, and am a very active member of the New England museum and young nonprofit professionals communities.

My passion in museums is to provide quality educational experiences in history, whether that is through exhibitions, education, or public programming. That "aha!" moment of emotional connection with a visitor is my gestalt, and what lured me away from academic history to work in museums. I am also endlessly fascinated by museum support systems - how they're organized, how they manage both staff and resources, and how they marshal finances and fundraising. I hope someday to be involved in museum administration and to help museums run better - both from a financial and an organizational point of view. I believe strongly in the values of transparency, efficiency, collaboration, and community, both inside the museum and between the museum and its constituents.

As an historian, my research interests focus loosely around American military experiences in the nineteenth century. My master's work focused on the formation of the U.S. Dragoons regiment in 1832, about the conflicting expectations between the government, officers, and enlisted men involved in the regiment, as well as its difficulties in developing a system of mounted military procedures suited to the West. In the past, I have also worked on logistics issues facing cavalrymen during long Western campaigns. As an undergraduate, my work focused on the intersections of religion, war, and politics in the Middle Ages, studying the laws of war and how they were applied. My next project will be looking at the perceptions of wild horses in the American West during the nineteenth century, and the fluid nature of their symbolism as both mythologized ideal and despised vermin.

For more information about my work history, please check out my LinkedIn profile, and feel free to find me on Twitter.