Manassas, Virginia, United States
Experienced Historical Museum/Park Education Director with experience working in both government and non-profit organizations. Strong skills in Museum Management, Educational Content Creation, Research, Public Speaking and Customer Service.
As Programs Coordinator for the City of Fairfax Office of Historic Resources, I develop and oversee public programs, field trips, volunteer initiatives, and interpretive projects across the city’s historic sites, including Historic Blenheim, the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, and the Ratcliffe-Allison-Pozer House. I create engaging, educational experiences that connect visitors of all ages with local history, designing programs aligned with Virginia Standards of Learning and National Association for Interpretation principles. My role combines program development, event coordination, and volunteer management to make history accessible, inclusive, and relevant to the community. I also support outreach and marketing efforts that strengthen partnerships with schools, organizations, and local groups, building participation and awareness of the City’s historic resources.
Responsible for overseeing the education department (called the Interpretation department) of Frying Pan Farm Park. Supervise anywhere between 5 and 10 staff members. Design and lead all educational programming at Frying Pan including Field Trips, Summer Camps, Scout programs, classes, and other programming. Create, plan, and facilitate new programming for the park including 3 new summer camps, 5 new classes, and 4 new scout badges. Responsible for leading, designing, and coordinating educational events at the park including: Martin Luther King Service and Learning day, Into the Woods, Frying Pan’s Juneteenth Celebration, Latino Conservation Day at Frying Pan Farm Park and Halloween on the Farm. Lead the interpretive team and coordinate with other departments in planning and executing large site-wide events including Spring Farm Day, The 4-H Fair and Carnival, Farm Harvest Days, and Holiday on the Farm. Manage all volunteers at the park -Train new volunteers, schedule volunteers, recruit volunteers, maintain the volunteer section of the webpage, organize volunteer hours Directs Summer camps along with Camp Director hired by the senior interpreter. Responsible for overseeing summer camp counselor training, camper safety, maintaining camp schedules, working with vendor camps on-site, administering medication, managing behavioral or interpersonal issues between campers and other camp related issues.
Research, write, and lead tours for Gadsby's Tavern and the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary. Collaborated with four other colleagues to create an overhauled tour for staff and volunteers for Gadsbys Tavern. -Selected out of a pool of around 20 staff members -Researched and wrote job aides to provide context for the history of the Tavern, to be used by staff and volunteers. -Researched and wrote interpretive scenarios to provide examples for the tour guides. Assisted in creating an orientation presentation for visitors to the Freedom House. Lead girl scout journeys (Media in our Lives for Cadettes and Wonders of Water for Brownies). Lead birthdays at Gadsby's Tavern, the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary, and the Friendship Firehouse Museum. Open, operate and close five museums: Gadsby's Tavern, Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary, Freedom House, The Lyceum, and Friendship Firehouse; provide customer service, answer questions, secure deposits, provide daily reports. Researched, developed, and led a special tour for Women's History Month March 2019. Lead outreach events all over the City of Alexandria.
The Fauquier History Museum at the Old Jail is a historic site and museum in Warrenton VA located right in the heart of old town Warrenton. The jail structure was built in 1808 with an additional back building built in 1823 and used until 1966 as the county jail. As the headquarters for the Fauquier Historical Society the site operated as a museum for the public, displaying the signifcanct collection amassed by the Society from over 50 years of acquiring. As the Executive Director I was in charge of all day-to-day operations of the museum including budgeting, purchasing, scheduling, communication with the public, coordinating with the Board of Directors and much more. As Director developed wrote and implemented all educational programming for the museum including exhibits, field trip programs, scout programs, tours, outreach programs, social media posts, videos and online exhibits/tours. In coordination with the Board of Directors I developed and led interpretive events at the museum and in the community. I also worked on grant funding for the museum bringing in over $22,000 in Grants. I was responsible for maintaining, preserving, and organizing a large artifact and document collection of over 3,000 items.
Researched, wrote, and designed historic programming for The Frying Pan Baptist Meeting House. -Researched identities of soldiers taken to the church as a hospital after Dranesville -Researched and created tour for church’s early Baptist history -Created programming and display material for the church’s African American history as well as compiled archival research from county records on the names of the African American members of the church. -Coordinated and executed event each year on the history of the church. Developed new programming for the park; wrote two new Farm Skills programs: “Animal Caretaking” and “Wool Crafting.” Developed and led scout programs; including researching, writing and creating three merit badge/regular badge programs, increased scout programs run by around 40%. Developed and led summer camps; created the first adventure camps at the park; completely filled first versions run of adventure camps, subsequent versions 75% filled. Co-Director of summer camps; including training new staff, overseeing camp schedules and camp staff schedules, ensuring proper procedures, contacting parents, leading camp programs and administering medication when needed; directly in charge of as many as three camps a week while responsible for the welfare while on site of another 5 contractor camps a week. Assisted in volunteer coordination; including planning volunteer recruitment events, scheduling volunteers, developing new volunteer positions, and designing volunteer trainings. Contacting schools, scouts and special groups; administrative tasks involving bringing these groups to the park.