Johann Neem is a historian who studies early American history and education. His writings have appeared in such venues as the Hedgehog Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, USA Today, and the Washington Post. He is author of the books What’s the Point of College? and Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education. With Joanne B. Freeman, he edited the essay collection Jeffersonians in Power (2019). Neem is currently co-editor of the Journal of the Early Republic.

Dan Vallone is a national expert and authority on polarization and social cohesion in America. Dan has led some of the most high-profile public-opinion studies of polarization and worked with stakeholders across the political spectrum on efforts to manage the risks and challenges of polarization. Dan regularly speaks about the ways to address polarization and his work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, C-SPAN, Boston Globe, CNN, Financial Times, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, the Undivided Attention podcast, and a range of other media outlets.

Dan brings a unique set of experiences to his work on polarization and social cohesion. He has has worked in politics at the national, state, and local level; he is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan; and he has led large-scale research and strategic communications initiatives on a range of issues.

Dan graduated from West Point, served six years as an infantry officer, and has an MBA from Harvard and a MA in Contemporary China from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore where he was a Fulbright Scholar.

Susie Wilkening (she/her) has over 25 years of experience in museums, including nearly 20 years leading custom projects for museums as well as fielding groundbreaking national research on the role of museums in American society. She is the primary researcher for the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers (in partnership with AAM), and shares her work at museum conferences, with the media, and with the museum field at the Data Stories page of wilkeningconsulting.com.

Modupe Labode is a curator of African American Social Justice History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She taught history and museum studies at IUPUI, where she was also a public scholar of African American History and Museums. Previously, she was the chief historian at the Colorado Historical Society (History Colorado). Labode's areas of interest include histories of monuments and commemoration; Black public art; African American history of the Midwest and West; and public interpretations of Black history at museums and public history sites. 

Nat Kendall-Taylor, PhD, is chief executive officer at the FrameWorks Institute, a research think tank in Washington, DC. He leads a multi-disciplinary team in conducting and implementing research on public understanding and framing of social issues. A psychological anthropologist, Nat publishes widely on communications research and lectures frequently. He is senior fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, visiting professor at the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine, and fellow at the British-American Project.

As a facilitator and museum professional, Sarah believes that how we engage matters. She has spent her career training our nation's story tellers - museums, national parks, and cultural centers - to help their visitors better discuss immigration, mass incarceration, gun violence, climate change, slavery, and both reproductive and civil rights. And every once in a while, she works with penguins. Sarah’s projects help audiences grapple with perspectives outside of their own lived experience, using dialogue to connect communities across difference. Prior to launching her own firm, Dialogic Consulting, in 2020, Sarah was a Senior Director at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, worked as the Director of Education at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and was the founding curator of the Arab American National Museum. She serves on the American Jewish Museums Advisory Council and is a member of the Emeritus Council of the American Association of State and Local History.

W. Todd Groce is President & CEO of the Georgia Historical Society. Dr. Groce was born in Tidewater Virginia and grew up there and in Memphis, the capital of the Mississippi Delta. He holds three degrees in history, including a PhD from the University of Tennessee. For over 30 years he has been an educator, administrator, and author, leading non-profit institutions in raising over $100 million for education, capital projects, and endowment. Dr. Groce has written and co-edited two books on the Civil War era and over 100 articles and book reviews for publications ranging from academic journals to the New York Times. A frequent lecturer on Southern history, Dr. Groce has made numerous television appearances on C-SPAN, the History Channel, and the BBC. He serves on the board of directors of many non-profit and educational institutions, including the Jepson Scholars Program, which advances global leadership through study at the University of Oxford. Over the past ten years, he has been listed by both Georgia Trend and James magazines as one of the “Most Influential Georgians.” An avid outdoorsman, he enjoys hiking, hunting, and walking old battlefields.

Thema McDonald has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing communications, leading all facets of brand marketing, including strategic planning, creative content development and production, events, and media engagement. As Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Chicago History Museum, McDonald is responsible for building public and media awareness, contributing to the success of the Museum’s exhibitions and programs, increasing visitor attendance and revenue, and delivering marketing solutions organization-wide. She is committed to developing strategic partnerships within the Museum and in the larger community.

Alan Spears serves as NPCA’s in-house historian and advocates for the preservation of historic and cultural resources across the United States. His most recent successes include passage of the National Heritage Area Act (December 2022) and the designation of the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument (July 2023). Alan is currently helping to lead a campaign to win designation of a new national park commemorating the life and legacy of Julius Rosenwald. Alan remains the only NPCA staff person ever to be rescued from a tidal marsh by a Park Police helicopter.

John Marks joined AASLH in 2017 and currently serves as the Director, Research and Strategic Initiatives. Leading AASLH’s Public History Research Lab, he directs AASLH’s field-wide research initiatives about the public history community and the role of history in American life. He also manages several other partnerships, initiatives, and special projects, including leading field-wide planning for the 250th anniversary of the United States and supporting advocacy, partnerships, and internal survey and data efforts. John is a historian of race and slavery in the United States and Atlantic World and holds a Ph.D. in history from Rice University and a BA from Lynchburg College. He is a native of New Jersey.

Ben Garcia (he/him) has worked for 20 years to help museums become places of welcome and belonging for all people. He started as a gallery guide and educator, moved on to exhibition development, and then served in middle- and upper-management administrative roles, before joining the American LGBTQ+ Museum as Executive Director. He has presented and published regularly on creating structural equity in museums through transparency, accountability, fair labor practices, and by adding missing voices and perspectives. Ben graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with a B.A. in Art and from Bank Street College of Education with an M.S. Ed. In Museum Leadership. 

Linnea Grim joined Strawbery Banke in 2023 after most recently serving as the vice president of Guest Experiences for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private nonprofit that owns and operates Monticello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Grim has 23 years of experience working in leadership positions at nationally relevant historic sites, history organizations, and in the Office of the Curator at the Supreme Court of the United States. She spent the last 16 years at Monticello serving as Hunter J. Smith Director of Education & Visitor Programs and Manager of Interpretive Programs prior to joining Monticello’s executive team in 2021. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from The College of William and Mary, and a Master’s degree in history museum studies from The Cooperstown Graduate Program.

Nicole A. Moore is a public historian and consultant with over a decade of museum experience. Her passion has been helping historic sites and museums strengthen their interpretation of the enslaved through workshops and training sessions, interpretive planning, and exhibition review. In her current role, Nicole serves as the Director of Education at the National Center for Civil Rights in Atlanta,  leading a multi-year expansion of educational content developed by and for The Center.  Engaging audiences  that range from K-12, to Fortune 500 C-suite executives and professional sports teams, Nicole urges groups to seek ways to protect the civil and human rights of all. Her publications include chapters for Interpreting Slavery and Interpreting the Civil War for Museums and Historic Sites, as well as Radical Roots: Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism. A proud Charlotte 49er, Nicole received her BA in Psychology, and MA in History with a concentration in Public History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Rick Noguchi is the President and CEO of California Humanities, the only statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the humanities in California. Previously, Rick served as the chief operating officer at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles, where he led the strategic direction of the museum and oversaw programs, development, and communications. He has an MFA in creative writing and an MBA in organizational development and he is a published poet (The Ocean Inside Kenji Takezo), children’s book author (Flowers from Mariko), and an avid surfer.

Dr. Berry is Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Dr. Berry is an historian, a “scholar of the enslaved,” and a specialist on gender and slavery as well as Black women’s history in the United States. She is the award-winning author/editor of six books. Her most recent publication, A Black Women’s History of the United States, co-authored with Kali Nicole Gross, is an empowering testament of Black women’s ability to build communities in the face of oppression, and their continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Dr. Berry completed her BA, MA, and PhD in African American Studies and U.S. History at the University of California Los Angeles.

Jonathan Zimmerman is Professor of History of Education and the Berkowitz Professor in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. A former Peace Corps volunteer and high school teacher, Zimmerman is the author of Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed.) and eight other books. Zimmerman is also a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, and other popular newspapers and magazines. Zimmerman taught for 20 years at New York University, where he received its Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008.

Ramin Ganeshram is the Executive Director of the Westport Museum for History & Culture in Westport CT. A culinary historian focused on BIPOC foodways in colonial North America and the Caribbean and Early Federal America, she is a chef and journalist educated at Columbia University Graduate School of journalism. Ganeshram is noted for her work surfacing the hidden history of Hercules Posey, the chef enslaved by George Washington. She has been recognized in evolving the Westport Museum from a small, local house museum to a regional history Museum focused on making history whole through inclusive interpretation.