Where are you from?
I grew up in Annville, Pennsylvania and currently live in Shrewsbury, Vermont.
Where did you attend school? Share with us the city/town, what you majored in, and what your academic interests are?
I recently received my M.A. in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont. Before that, I completed a dual B.A. in Public History/Historic Preservation and English Literature from Shepherd University, located in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
What are your career goals?
For now, my goal is to learn as much as possible about what I’m doing and how to best preserve and interpret historic resources. Ultimately, I’d love to land in a role where I can work with preservation policies and mandates without losing sight of some of the more technical and detail-oriented aspects of the field. I like the challenge of trying to make those high-level ideas communicate and make sense with the day-to-day work that’s happening at historic sites.
Outside of school and work what are your hobbies and/or interests?
I’m a big fan of cooking, but especially of baking! There is literally nothing that beats the smell of freshly baked bread and then sneaking a still slightly-too-hot slice for yourself. I also love anything to do with art and music. While it seems like my pandemic activity of doing nail art is here to stay, I also like to spend time reading, hanging out with my cats, and watercolor painting.
What is your internship project focus? Explain what you will be doing, which parks/partners will you be working with? Who is your mentor at OCLP?
My focus will be to assist NPS historic sites with cultural resource research, field evaluation, and updating and improvement of Interior Region 1’s Cultural Resources Inventory System – Historic Structures (CRIS-HS) database. Because the Historic Structure Inventory program is newly established with the OCLP, I will be working closely with my mentor, Lauren Laham, to help with planning and organizing processes moving forward.
The bulk of what I’ll be doing will be working within CRIS – HS conducting research, updating records, and creating new records to make sure that they reflect a robust and accurate inventory. I’ll also have the chance to do some field work collecting information to be included into records that are due to be recertified this year.
Why did you choose to participate in a Designing the Parks Internship? How is your internship hosted?
My internship is hosted through the National Council of Preservation Education (NCPE). Previously, I had a position as Historic Preservation Specialist Intern for the NPS Region 1 Center for Historic Architecture, Conservation, and Engineering (HACE) in the Historic Structures Research and Documentation (HSRD) branchin partnership with the Student Conservation Association. After completing that internship, I went back to finish my final semester of graduate school and, reflecting on my experiences both in school and with HACE, I realized that cultural resource planning and management work is something that I find to be interesting and rewarding and wanted to continue exploring and gaining experience in. So, when I saw this opportunity, I was immediately interested in applying.
What are you looking forward to learning or exploring during your internship?
I’m really looking forward to learning from the OCLP staff as well as the other associates. Part of what drew me to this position was the chance to engage with preservation and cultural resource stewardship so broadly, so I’m excited to be in a place with opportunities to explore projects outside of what my assigned tasks may be. I’m also the first Architectural Historian Associate to work with the OCLP, so I think that working through this meld of historic structures and cultural landscapes inventories at a planning level is going to be really interesting.
What types of opportunities will Designing the Parks provide you with?
This internship will give me the opportunity to learn more about cultural landscapes as well as cultural resource management in general in addition to getting exposure to some of the technologies, like GIS, that the OCLP uses. I’ll also have the chance to learn more about how the NPS operates on a broad level, including the ways in which policies and mandates affect cultural resource management. And, of course, there will be opportunities to network with people in different areas of expertise!
Designing the Parks 