Live Webinar: Making History at 250: The Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial

Email: tbrown@america250.org

Terry E. Brown is on special assignment to the U.S. Semiquincentennial Comission serving as the Director of Federal Partnerships. He is the former Superintendant of Fort Monroe National Monument and a long-time veteran of the National Park Service (NPS), with more than 30 years in federal service. Under his leaderhsip at Ft. Monroe, innovation fluorished across all program areas, including science, interpretation, natural resources, law enforcement, cultural resources, and administration. Terry helped organize and lead the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English North America, which culminated with the joint ribbon-cutting on a Fort Monroe Visitor Center and a Healing Day Ceremony. He served as a liaison to the Fort Monroe Authority Board of Trustees, and in 2018 he was selected by the Secretary of Interior to serve as a member of the Federal 400 Years of African American History Commission. He is the recipient of several NPS awards and honors. 

Email: bmacdonald@museumofus.org

Brandie Macdonald (Indigenous: Chickasaw/Choctaw; pronouns: she/her) is the Director of Decolonizing Initiatives at the Museum of Us which resides on the ancestral Indigenous homeland of Kumeyaay peoples located in San Diego, California. Brandie's work focuses on the application of anti-colonial/decolonial theory and practice in museums that become a catalysis for systemic reform—which centers truth-telling, accountability, and actionable change to redress colonial impact, structural racism, and inequity. Brandie is also a Ph.D. student in Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her research aligns with her work, where she focuses on the tangible and sustainable application of decolonial practices in society that become a catalyst for transformative change. She’s a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow, American Alliance of Museums’ Nancy Hanks Award for Professional Excellent recipient, a Smithsonian Affiliate Fellow at the National Museum of the American Indian, and she currently sits on the board of the Western Museums Association.    

Email: anewell@amrevmuseum.org

Aimee E. Newell is the Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Previously, she worked as the Executive Director of the Luzerne County Historical Society (Wilkes-Barre, PA) and of the Stonington Historical Society (in Connecticut). She has held curatorial positions at the Nantucket Historical Association, Old Sturbridge Village and the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library. Newell has a PhD in History from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst and an MBA from Suffolk University. She currently serves on AASLH’s Small Museums Committee and the Standards and Ethics Committee.

John Dichtl became AASLH President & CEO in 2015. Prior to that he was the executive director of the National Council on Public History (NCPH) for nine years, and worked for the Organization of American Historians for fourteen years as deputy director and in several other roles. John received his MA and PhD in early American history from Indiana University, and from 2006 to 2015 was an adjunct faculty member of the history department at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Before graduate school he worked for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He is a 2004 graduate of the Seminar for Historical Administration (now History Leadership Institute), a program that stems from an AASLH partnership with the Indiana Historical Society and other organizations. John helped to found the History Relevance Campaign, the International Federation for Public History, and is active in the National Coalition for History.