Education

 

George Washington University, Washington, DC

Ph.D. in American History, August 2007

Dissertation: James Wilkinson: Spanish Agent or Double Agent?

Dissertation Committee: Dr. Elizabeth Fenn (Duke University),
Dr. Kenneth Bowling, Dr. Tyler Anbinder

Major field: U.S. Colonial to Early Republic (1600-1815)

Major field: U.S. Early Republic to Reconstruction (1815-1877)

Minor fields: Political, Diplomatic and Social History

Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA

M.A. in United States History, 1998

Thesis: Changing Patterns of Human Interaction with Black Bears in California

University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

B.A. in Communication Studies, 1995, Dean’s Honor List

El Camino Community College, Torrance, CA

A.A. in both History and Communications, 1992, Dean’s Honor List, Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society

 

Employment

 

Northern Virginia Community College, Sterling, VA

Assistant Professor

Director of the Historic Preservation Certificate Program

June 2004 - Present

Courses include:

Age of the American Revolution

History of Virginia I (1600 - 1800)

American History I (1450 - 1877)

History of Western Civilization I (prehistory - 1750)

History of Western Civilization II (1600 - present)

Supervised Historic Preservation Internship

Manage and support eight instructors in the Historic Preservation Certificate Program, encourage development of certificate courses, integrate the program into the community fabric through partnerships, coordinate and place students in internships with local and national organizations, organize bi-annual Open Houses.

 

Adjunct Professor

January 2000 - May 2004

Courses taught:

Age of the American Revolution

History of the American West

American History I (1450 - 1877)

American History II (1865 - present)

History of Western Civilization I (prehistory - 1750)

History of Western Civilization II (1600 - present)

 

First Federal Congress Project, Washington, DC

Research Assistant

August 1998 - May 2000

Researched the documentary history of the first Federal Congress (1789-1791), edited and transcribed eighteenth century manuscripts for publication in volumes fourteen and fifteen. Coordinated the design and creation of the Project’s online exhibit (http://www2.gwu.edu/~ffcp), an integral component of the Project’s ongoing public education efforts.

 

Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA

Discussion Leader

August 1996 - May 1998

Assisted with teaching and grading during five semesters in both ancient and modern western civilization courses. Guest lectured in both the ancient and the modern courses during final year as discussion leader.

 

Academic Conference Presentations

 

Aug 2009                    “The Meaning and Memory of Early Virginia, 1607-2007,” Monticello’s Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies

Aug 2009                    “Early Modern Virginia: New Thoughts on the Old Dominion,” Virginia Foundation for the Humanities

Mar 2008                    “Growing Pains, “Spain’s involvement with Kentucky’s bid for Independence,” Southwestern Historical Association

Feb 2008                     “Early Kentucky’s Involvement in the Politics of the Atlantic,” Consortium on the Revolutionary Era Conference

Jan 2008                     “The Professional Balancing Act,” Power Up Your Pedagogy

Apr 2008                     “’Special Agents’ in 1780s Virginia,” Virginia Roundtable

May 2005                   “James Wilkinson’s 1787 Efforts to Secure American Navigation of the Mississippi River,” Washington Area Cosmos Club Conference

April 2004                   “Protecting Spanish Louisiana: Secret Correspondence between James Wilkinson and Spain,” American Catholic Historians Association

March 2004                “Ruminations of a Secret Agent: Evolutionary Changes in James Wilkinson’s Memorials of 1787 and 1789 to the Spanish Crown,” Mississippi Valley Historical Conference

May 2003                   “The Creation of Washington DC,” United States Capitol Historical Society

October 2001             “Anti-Slavery Petitioning in the Early Republic,” Washington Area Conference on Slavery and Slave Systems

June 1999                    “’The Embargo will kill us all!’ New England Politics after Washington,” New England Nineteenth Century History Conference

May 1999                   “Patterns of Interaction with the California Black Bear,” University of California Irvine Graduate Conference on California History

 

Guest Lectures

 

May 2005                   “Kentucky’s Early Statehood Conventions”

March 2005                “Trans-Appalachian Commerce in the 1780s”

July 2004                    “Modern and ‘Classical’ American Federalism”

June 2004                    “Comparing German and American Federalism”

November 2003         “The Evolving Nature of American Federalism”

May 2003                   “Kentucky: America’s First Western Frontier”

February 2003           “The Nashville Convention of 1850”

November 2002         “American Society Under the Articles of Confederation”

October 2002             “Virginia’s Significance in the Early Republic”

September 2001         “The Creation of Washington, DC”

June 2001                    “Spanish Fears of American Imperialism in the 1790s”

October 2000             “Abolitionists and Slave Revolts”

April 2000                   “The Embargo and the War of 1812”

March 2000                “Cartography as a Weapon of War”

October 1999             “Westward Expansion Prior to Jefferson's Presidency”

June 1999                    “The Battle for the Gulf Coast in the Early 1800s”

 

Federalism Briefings for the U.S. State Department (selected)