Assistant Director of Public History and Programming
Will directs the HBCU Radio Preservation Project’s oral history program while helping to lead its campus visitation strategy. He values the opportunity to mentor and train early career professionals in the hands-on work of doing public history, as well as organizing conference presentations and oral history workshops in coordination with community partners.
In addition to serving on the HBCU RPP, Will helped complete a forthcoming digital project for the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum that maps neighborhood voices recorded as oral histories for three exhibitions created in the 1970s. He recently co-curated ACM’s Washington, D.C. Women Speak project, which highlights the archived stories of diverse women who lived and worked in the DC-metro area. As a public historian, Will adheres to an ethic of shared authority that challenges audiences to consider how race, memory, and power mutually shape our world. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and holds an M.A. in Public History from American University.