People

Michelle LeBlanc has 20 years of experience in museums and classrooms, teaching history and designing programming for varied audiences. She is Director of Education at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library where she runs all aspects of teacher training, school programs and curriculum development. She has served as Project Director for two Teaching American History grants, a federal program that provided professional development for teachers. She holds an M.A. in American History from Northeastern University and is a licensed teacher for grades 5-8 social studies in Massachusetts.

Elisabeth Nevins is a museum education, interpretation, and evaluation consultant based in Boston, Massachusetts. She collaborates with staff at museums and historic sites throughout the Northeast to create empowering and engaging learning experiences with their visitors. Nevins serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Museum Education and recently co-edited three issues. Her essay “The Past as a Brave Space: Reframing Relevance” was published in The State of Museums: Voices from the Field from MuseumsEtc in fall 2018. She holds a B.A. in history from Yale University and an M.S.Ed. in museum education and early adolescent education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education.

Christine DeLucia is Assistant Professor of History at Williams College and author of Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast, published in 2018 by Yale University Press in the Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity. The book received the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians book award, the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize from the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Lois P. Rudnick Prize from the New England American Studies Association, and the Honorable Mention from the National Council on Public History. DeLucia has also written for The Journal of American History, Native American and Indigenous Studies, William and Mary Quarterly, and other publications. She is involved in a number of public humanities and community engagement projects involving place-based work, museums, archives, and libraries, and the potentials for education and collaboration to transform understandings, social systems, and futures.

Hilary Goodnow is the Associate Director of Education & Outreach at Plimoth Patuxet Museums (formerly Plimoth Plantation). She is a Public Historian specializing in engaging, immersive, and thought-provoking historic and cultural exhibits, programs, and living history experiences for diverse audiences. She holds an MA in Public History from North Carolina State University and a BA in History and Museum Studies from Connecticut College.

Paul J. Grant-Costa, Ph.D., J.D., is Co-Director and Executive Editor of the Native Northeast Research Collaborative (formerly the Yale Indian Papers Project). He has worked as Senior Researcher at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center. As a lead historical researcher on a number of federal recognition projects, he worked with tribal councils, tribal historians, lawyers, and anthropologists across New England. He holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Linguistics from the Univ. of Connecticut, a J.D. from the Univ. of Connecticut School of Law, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University.

Elizabeth James-Perry is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head-Aquinnah, located by the richly colored clay cliffs of Marthas Vineyard/Noepe. She is a multi-medium traditional and contemporary artist taught by her mother Patricia James-Perry, and by cousins Dr. Helen Attaquin and Nanepashemut whose knowledge and artistry was crucial to the development of the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation Museum in the early 1970s. The artist's formal education includes training at the Rhode Island School of Design, and Shoals Marine Lab; she holds a degree in Marine Biology from the University of Massachusetts, and was employed in fisheries research for several years. Additionally, she has conducted years of in-depth research at museum archives and collections in the United States and Europe. Awards include ribbons in the Textile & Jewelry Divisions at the annual Heard Museum Art Market, a Traditional Arts Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council for her wampum and twined basketry, and the Rebecca Blunk Award for her dedication to Northeastern arts.

Tess Lukey is a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah and the Curatorial Research Associate in the Art of the Americas department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has recently opened the exhibition Collecting Stories: The Invention of Folk Art (February-January 2022) and has been a part of the curatorial team for Garden for Boston (June-September 2022). Lukey has a bachelor’s degree in Ceramics and Art History from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a master’s degree in Native American Art History with a minor in Museum Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her master’s thesis focused on tracing the influence of historic Heiltsuk mask making traditions on the contemporary artworks of the Heiltsuk artist, Shawn Hunt. She has worked for the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston and the John Sommers Gallery in New Mexico. She has also completed fellowships at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA and the Hibben Center for Archaeology Research and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in Albuquerque, NM. In her spare time, she is a traditional potter and basket weaver practicing in the techniques of her own indigenous community.

Margaret Pearce is enrolled Citizen Band Potawatomi and a cartographer based in Rockland, Maine. She holds a PhD in Geography from Clark University (where she focused on map history and cartographic design), and has sixteen years of experience as a geography faculty member, most recently as Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas (where she also taught in the Indigenous Studies Program). In 2016, she decided to devote herself full-time to map design, especially for Indigenous geographies. Her awards include a Yaddo Fellowship, an Anne Ray Fellowship (School for Advanced Research), an ACLS Fellowship, an APS Franklin Research Grant, a Landes Research Grant, and two national map design awards. She is former president of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS). She is omnivorous in her passion for maps.

Emily Scheinberg is Head of Educator Resources and Professional Development at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She particularly enjoys leading professional development programs focused on teaching with art and/or primary sources​, and has done so in various roles over the last 15 years. Emily previously worked in education at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA); the Jewish Women's Archive (online, based in Brookline, MA), and the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco, CA), and in 2015 was recognized as Eastern Region Art Museum Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association.

Dr. Shear earned her doctorate in Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum from the University of Missouri in 2014 with concentrations in social studies education and Indigenous Studies. Sarah examines K-12 social studies curriculum within Indigenous contexts, as well as race/ism and settler colonialism in K-12 social studies teacher education, popular media, and qualitative methodologies. As a member of the Turtle Island Social Studies Collective, Sarah is committed to collective action to combat oppression in education and academia. In addition, Sarah co-edited (Re)Imagining Elementary Social Studies: A Controversial Issues Reader (Information Age Press, 2018) and Marking the Invisible: Articulating Whiteness in Social Studies Education (Information Age Press, in press). Her efforts have been featured by Zinn Project, Teaching Tolerance, and Huffington Post. Sarah is also a co-founding member of the Elementary Social Studies Education Summit and the forthcoming open-peer reviewed, open access journal The Critical Social Educator.

endawnis Spears (Diné/Ojibwe/Chickasaw/Choctaw) is impassioned about the diverse and complex intersections of Native American narratives and museums. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from the University of Denver and will complete her Master’s degree also in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst next year. endawnis has worked for the Heard Museum, the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma, the Narragansett Indian Tribe and was a Peabody Essex Museum Native American Arts and Culture Fellow. In late 2019, she was elected to the Federation of State Humanities Councils' Board of Directors. The federation is a national organization partnering all state humanities councils and supporting grassroots humanities programming in every state and territory. She is the Director of Outreach and Programming and founding member of the Akomawt Educational Initiative, an Indigenous education support service and interpretive consultancy. Originally from Camp Verde, Arizona, she lives in Rhode Island with her husband Cassius Spears Jr., and their four children, Nizhoni, Sowaniu, Giizhig, and Tishominko.

Timothy Turner is from the Cherokee Nation. Tim began his career at Plimoth Patuxet Museums in 1987 and is currently the Associate Director of Indigenous Education. When Tim is not engaging guests at the Museum or on the road doing outreach programs, you may see Tim embodying Hobbamock, a Wampanoag pnise and advisor to Ousamequin (known to history by his title, Massasoit) sent to live outside the English village with his family in the 1620s. In 2017, Tim was honored with the Hornblower Award for outstanding contribution to the spirit of Plimoth Patuxet's founder, Henry Hornblower II.

Marina Tyquiengco (CHamoru) is a curatorial assistant in the department of contemporary art at the MFA Boston and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. At the MFA, she been part of the curatorial team for Garden for Boston (June-September 2022), a co-curator for New Light: Encounters and Connections (July 2021-February 2022), and a co-curator for RESIST COVID/TAKE 6! (April-June 2021). Her dissertation examines embodiment as a practice of four Indigenous artists from Australia, Canada, and the US and explores how their work confronts stereotypes, problematic modes of display, and contemporary issues of belonging. She has previously taught at Brown University. She has published articles in Feminist Studies and Lateral, and reviews for First American Art Magazine, Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture, and art inquires.

Lauren is an art museum educator specializing in the design and implementation of programs for students and teachers. She has extensive experience developing curricula and teaching in museum galleries, school classrooms, and online platforms. Over the past 18 years, Lauren has worked in education at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, TX); Amon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth, TX), Art Institute of Chicago; Frank Lloyd Wright Trust (Oak Park, IL); and Dallas Museum of Art (TX). She holds an MA in Art Education from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Christine Baron is a former high school history teacher and museum educator. Prior to her academic post, Dr. Baron directed the development of educational and interpretation programs at the Old North Church, Boston. Dr. Baron’s research focuses on using museums and historic sites as laboratories for history teacher education. Her related interests include examining historical thinking related to non-traditional texts (buildings, images and artifacts), teaching and teacher learning in informal settings. She has been recognized by the National Council on Public History American Association of State and Local History, and the National Council on the Social Studies her research related to using historic sites to foster historical thinking.

Joe Bagley joined the City Archaeology Program in 2011 as the fourth City Archaeologist since 1983. Bagley curates a growing repository of archaeological collections currently housed at the City Archaeology Laboratory at 201 Rivermoor Street in West Roxbury, acts as the review and compliance agent for below-ground cultural resources in the city, educates the public in archaeology through a number of city programs, manages Rainsford Island, and manages the Archaeology Programs social media platforms. Joe received his Bachelor's Degree in Archaeology from Boston University and a Master’s Degree in Historical Archaeology from UMass Boston. While a senior at BU he worked at the City Archaeology Lab under the previous City Archaeologist, Ellen Berkland, to analyze the Native American artifacts excavated by former City Archaeologist, Steven Pendery, on Boston Common. Joe has conducted archaeological surveys from the woods of Maine to the Florida Everglades. He specializes in both Native American and Historical archaeological analysis and the archaeology of Boston.

Garrett Dash Nelson is a historical geographer and the Curator of Maps & Director of Geographic Scholarship at the Leventhal Map & Education Center. He works on the relationship between landscape, community, politics, and geographic representation. He holds an MA in Landscape & Culture from the University of Nottingham and a PhD in Geography from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Elizabeth Solomon is an enrolled member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. She is currently the Assistant Director of Academic Affairs and Fellowship Programs at HSPH. Elizabeth has nearly 30 years of public health experience including positions in research project management and academic affairs at Harvard Chan as well as positions in management and program development in community-based organizations. Elizabeth is a member of a number of advisory and management boards including boards affiliated with the Boston Harbor Islands National Park and the Digital Archive of Native American Petitions in Massachusetts.

Cassius Spears, Jr. is the First Councilman for the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island and is passionate about land stewardship, conservation, and traditional foodways in Rhode Island. His paternal side taught him compassion by practicing respect for the land, water, and the soil. His maternal side taught him humility by encouraging him to participate in community, ceremony, and public service. This knowledge helped him understand conservation as a spiritual relationship between people and place. Cassius sees foodways as society’s direct connection to regenerative conservation and believes that Indigenous socio-ecological relationships are a model for sustainability. Cassius graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2010 with a B.S. in Environmental Management and Science. He is the Narragansett Indian Tribal delegate for the National Congress of American Indians and has served on the Board of Director for the United Southern and Eastern Tribes since 2015. Cassius works for the Natural Resource Conservation Service as a District Conservationist.