As part of its service to the advancement of the field, NCPH has assembled an academic advisory board whose individual members are available to offer expert advice to university and college departments or programs. We expect that colleges and universities would seek outside reviewers in the field of public history under conditions such as these:

  • when a college or university or department is exploring the possibility of creating a stand-alone public history program;
  • when a history program (or, for that matter, an American Studies or humanities program) is considering adding a public history track;
  • when a public history program or public history track is considering an expansion; whether to an MA or a PhD or simply in size and scope;
  • when a department is looking to hire new faculty to teach public history and attempting to write a job description;
  • 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 a university is seeking 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 contact the chair of the committee for an application form.)

Rebecca Conard
professor of history emeritus
Middle Tennessee State University
2186 Port talbot place
coralville, IA 52241
Ph: 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.

theodore j. karamanski
professor of history
director, public history program
loyola University chicago
(773) 508-2684
[email protected]
catherine m. lewis
Assistant vice president of museums, archives and rare books
professor of history
kennesaw state university
402 bartow avenue nw
room 4130, md 2206
kennesaw, ga 30144
(470) 578-2083
[email protected]
John W. W. Mann
professor and graduate studies director
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 of History
Coordinator of Public History
Department of History
Technology Learning Center
University of West Georgia
Carrollton GA 30118
Ph: 678-839-6041
[email protected]

Dr. Ann McCleary has over twenty years of full-time experience in public history, especially working with museums, the Virginia SHPO, state humanities councils, and consulting before returning to teaching almost fifteen years ago.  She developed and coordinates the Public History and Museum Studies programs at the University of West Georgia.  At UWG, she also created the Center for Public History, in which she supervises community-based research and public programs that engage graduate and undergraduate students in collaborative research projects.

denise meringolo
associate professor of history
director of public history
university of maryland baltimore county
(410) 455-2058
[email protected]
Johanna Miller Lewis, PhD
Professor of History and Graduate Coordinator
Department of History, Public History Program
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Ph: 501-569-8772
[email protected]
Philip Scarpino
Professor of History
Department of History IUPUI
Cavanaugh 518
425 University Blvd.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Ph: 317-274-3811
[email protected]

Dr. Scarpino has enjoyed a distinguished career in the field of public history, having served as director of a statewide historic preservation program at Oklahoma State University and as Director of the Public History Program at IUPUI. He has experience both in heading graduate public history programs and in serving as chair of a department with major public history offerings. He has taken his department through two external reviews, and he has served as a reviewer for several departments with public history programs. In addition, Dr. Scarpino has considerable experience working with community partners and supervising paid and unpaid internships.

Constance B. Schulz
Professor of History
Co-Director of the Public History Program
Department of History
Gambrell Hall 245
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Ph: 803-777-6525
[email protected]
Ivan D. Steen
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12222
Ph: 518-442-5372
[email protected]

As the founding director of his department’s graduate Program in Public History, which was established nearly a quarter of a century ago, he has reasonable expertise related to the first five scenarios listed above. Dr. Steen’s program offers MA degree and a Certificate of Advanced Study (a year beyond the MA) in Public History, as well as a minor field in the PhD program. The department also has plans underway to offer Public History as a major field in the PhD program.

orlan svingen
professor of history
washington state university
(509) 335-5205
[email protected]
Patricia West McKay
National Park Service
Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
1013 Old Post Road
Kinderhook, NY 12106
Ph:  518-758-9689
[email protected]

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.