As part of our service to the field, NCPH’s Curriculum and Training Committee maintains a list of academic advisors available to offer expert advice to university and college departments or programs seeking outside reviewers for any of the following circumstances:
- when a history department with a public history track or MA or PhD program is scheduled for academic review;
- when an academic institution or department is exploring the possibility of creating a stand-alone public history program;
- when a history (or related humanities) program is considering adding a public history track;
- when a public history program or public history track is considering expansion; whether to an MA or a PhD or simply in size and scope;
- when a department is writing a position description to hire new faculty to teach public history;
- when a department is looking to replace a public history faculty member and is reviewing the existing job description;
- when questions about the relationship between public history and museum studies arise;
- when an academic institution requires an outside reviewer for a faculty member seeking tenure and/or promotion and that faculty member’s scholarship includes activities in the field of public history;
- when a university is looking for a faculty member with appropriate credentials to serve as an outside reviewer of undergraduate or graduate programs that include training in public history
The following scholars have agreed to serve in an advisory capacity. Some have provided brief biographical statements which indicate the conditions under which they believe they would be able to offer the most useful advice. The list of program reviewers is maintained by the NCPH Curriculum & Training Committee. If you would like to be added to this list, please complete the form below.
Current Program Reviewers
Ann Abney
Digital Initiatives Metadata Librarian
University of South Florida
[email protected]
Ann Abney (she/her) is the Digital Initiatives Metadata Librarian at the University of South Florida as well as an Adjunct Lecturer for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research expertise lies in archives, memory in education, and disability and accessibility.
Rebecca Conard
Professor of History Emeritus
Middle Tennessee State University
2186 Port Talbot Place
Coralville, IA 52241
615-975-0593
[email protected]
Dr. Conard is well suited to advise history programs which are considering the creation of a stand alone public history degree. She would also be well suited to assisting departments which are considering the expansion of their public history track- whether by considering a stand alone MA or a PhD or simply thinking about expanding the size and scope of public history offerings. In addition, Dr. Conard would be of assistance to departments who are writing or revising the job descriptions for faculty who can teach public history. In addition, Dr. Conard has served several times as an outside reviewer of undergraduate and/or graduate programs in public history. She has also served as an outside reviewer for public history faculty at other universities who are undergoing the Tenure and Promotion process.
Michelle Hamilton
Professor
Western University Canada
[email protected]
Michelle Hamilton is an award-winning Public Historian interested in historical and contemporary issues surrounding museums and material culture, repatriation/rematriation, commemoration, cultural identity and issues of representation, usually in regards to Indigenous peoples. She has published 3 monographs, and directs Hear, Here London, an audio documentary project that externalizes oral histories to the street and “Village SoHo,” an outdoor exhibit project which applies concepts of heritage to health and well-being in collaboration with non-profit affordable housing organizations. A Professor at Western University Canada since 2008, she also served as Director of the MA and Minor Public History programs for 10 years and has managed its Medical Artifact Collection for over 20 years. Hamilton has served on many boards and committees throughout Canada and the United States and continues to be an active advocate for heritage under threat.
Dr. Catherine M. Lewis
Associate Vice Provost, Museums, Archives & Rare Books and University Libraries
Professor of History
Kennesaw State University
402 Bartow Avenue NW
Room 4130, MD 2206
Kennesaw, GA 30144
404-667-9483
[email protected]
John W. W. Mann
Professor, Department of History
UW-Eau Claire
105 Garfield Ave. P.O. Box 4004
Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004
(715) 836-5850
[email protected]
Dr. Mann developed the public history program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2003. Before joining the faculty at UW-Eau Claire, he worked as a preservation planner in the Spokane, WA City-County Office of Historic Preservation. He also has experience in museums and archives. The public history program at UW-Eau Claire has degree offerings at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The Wisconsin Historical Society’s northern field services office is located in the UW-Eau Claire History Department, and helps students identify internship opportunities. The UW-Eau Claire History Department has recently expanded the public history program with the addition of a second tenure-track faculty member and adopted language in its evaluation plan consistent with the best practices outlined in the NCPH-AHA-OAH 2010 report “Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian.” Dr. Mann can advise departments seeking to create public history programs or expand existing ones. He would also be of assistance to departments seeking to hire public historians. Finally, he is available to review faculty members seeking tenure with scholarly activities in public history or departments with graduate or undergraduate programs that provide training in public history.
Ann McCleary
Professor Emerita of History, Coordinator of Public History and Founding Director,
Center for Public History, University of West Georgia
678-231-3561
[email protected]
Dr. Ann McCleary worked for twenty years in public history, especially museums, the Virginia SHPO, state humanities councils, and consulting before moving into a career teaching public history for more than 25 years. She developed and coordinated the Public History and Museum Studies programs at the University of West Georgia and established the Center for Public History, in which she supervised community-based research and public programs that engage graduate and undergraduate students in collaborative research projects. Since retirement in 2022, she is a consultant working with the National Park Service, the Smithsonian, Georgia Humanities, and rural communities to support public history work.
Patricia West McKay
National Park Service
Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
1013 Old Post Road
Kinderhook, NY 12106
518-758-9689
Dr. West has worked as a public historian for thirty years. She has supervised public history internships, participated in tenure and promotion reviews for public historians in the academy, taught graduate and undergraduate history, and coordinated numerous collaborative projects between public and academic historians. She holds a PhD in US History from Binghamton University and is Curator at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site.
Denise Meringolo
Professor of History
Department Chair and Director of Public History
University of Maryland Baltimore County
(410) 455-2058
[email protected]
Kathleen Powers Conti
Assistant Professor
Florida State University
[email protected]
As a public historian and preservationist, Kathleen Powers Conti consults on projects across the U.S. and is an assistant professor of history at Florida State University. Her research spans across the Americas and the former Soviet Union, focusing on how to preserve and interpret places of “difficult heritage” — sites of trauma, contested history, or atrocities. Her community-engaged research helps people and communities preserve the stories and places that matter to them — for today but also for future generations. Conti is a 2026 MacDowell Fellow and is currently writing her first book project, Fingerprints in Brick: Race, Memory, and Historic Preservation in the American South. She frequently consults on public history and architectural projects throughout the US, including designing memorials and museum exhibits as well as writing historic contexts, design guidelines, and nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. Notable projects include developing new treatment options to protect cultural landscapes at risk of natural disasters and developing new interpretation at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.