Assistant Director of Public History and Programming
Will directs the HBCU Radio Preservation Project’s oral history program while helping to lead its campus engagement strategy. He consulted on the design of the HBCU RPP website and maintains it as a resource for people to immerse themselves in the ongoing work of HBCU radio preservation. Will values the opportunity to mentor and train early career professionals in the hands-on experience of doing public history, as well as organizing conference presentations and oral history workshops in coordination with project partners and educators.
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 developed in the 1970s. He recently co-curated ACM’s Washington, D.C. Women Speak project, which highlights the archived stories of women who lived and worked in the DC-metro area. As a public historian, Will adheres to an ethic of shared authority that challenges diverse audiences to consider how race, memory, and power have mutually shaped their communities. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he wrote a dissertation about policing and Black-led struggles for accountability, and holds an M.A. in Public History from American University.