CV

Education

• PhD, History August 2020 Georgetown University, Department of History 
  • Fields: African American History, U.S. History, Transregional Urban History, African History
  • Dissertation:“The City that Care Forgot: Apartheid Health Care, Racial Health Disparity, and Black Health Activism in New Orleans, 1718-2018.”
  • Advisor:Marcia Chatelain 

• M.A., History May 2015, University of New Orleans, Department of History
  • Concentration: Public History      

• M.A., Political Science May 2008, Rutgers University

• B.A., History and Political Science May 2005 

Selected Teaching Experience

• Assistant Professor, Department of History, Nicholls State University, Fall 2020-Present.
  • Courses Taught: African American History to 1877, Global History of Pandemics, History of Louisiana, History of Medicine, History of Modern Africa, History Research Seminar, US History to 1877, US History Since 1877, US History 1900-1945. 

• Adjunct Instructor, Department of History, Loyola University, Fall 2019-Spring 2020.
  • Course Taught: Global History II, Louisiana History.  

• Adjunct Instructor, History Department, University of New Orleans, Fall 2019.
  • Course Taught:Black Healthcare History. 

• Adjunct Instructor, Department of Africana Studies, Tulane University, Fall 2019. 
  • Course Taught:Black Healthcare History. 

• Teaching Assistant, Department of History, Georgetown University, Fall 2016-Spring 2018.
  • Courses: African American Women’s History; Atlantic History; Conflict and Reform: US History 1877-1920; Oil and World Power.  

Selected Publications

• Manuscript Under Contract with University of North Carolina Press (publication Spring 2023)
  • A City without Care: 300 Years of Racism, Health Disparities, and Healthcare Activism in New Orleans
  • Description: My work examines the rise and perpetuation of the racialized health care system in New Orleans; its impact on Black residents, including disparities in disease and mortality rates; and the Black struggle for access to healthcare and improved health.

• Articles in Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals 
  • “More than Recreation: Black Parks and Playgrounds in Jim Crow New Orleans,” Louisiana History Volume 60, No. 5 (Fall 2019): 437-478.  
  • “Flint Goodridge Hospital and Black Healthcare in Twentieth Century New Orleans,” Journal of African American HistoryVolume 103, No. 4 (Winter 2018): 581-608. 
  • “Freedpeople and the Federal Government’s First Public Housing in Washington D.C,” Federal History Issue 10(April 2018): 61-77.
  • “Zulu: A Transnational History of a New Orleans Mardi Gras Krewe,” Safundi: The Journal of South African and American StudiesVolume 19, Issue 2(April 2018)139-163.  

• Book Chapters
  • “The Black Doctor on the Historical Small Screen: African American Physicians in Television Period Dramas,” in Diagnosing History: Medicine in Television Costume Dramas (Manchester University Press, March 2022). 
  • “Critical Issues in African American Health and Healthcare,” in The African American Experience: From Slavery to Liberation(Western Kentucky University Press, September 2019).

• Book Review
  • Review of Brian D. Goldstein, The Roots of Urban Renaissance: Gentrification and the Struggle over Harlem, inJournal of African American HistoryVol. 104, No. 4 (Fall 2019): 728-730.  

• Article Under Review for Peer-Reviewed Academic Journal
  • “Crescent City Crisis: Bubonic Plague in New Orleans, 1914-1921,” Louisiana History. 

Research Grants, Awards, and Fellowships

• Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Grant, Restore Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana, Summer 2021-present. 
  • Description: I am co-leading a grant-funded project that is gathering, analyzing, and coding primary and secondary source material that documents the history of Smith Ridge, a community in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana founded by formerly enslaved African Americans after the Civil War. We will collaborate with the community to document their history. The project will detail the changing patterns in residence and housing as well as key individual and community activities, such as fishing, hunting, and gardening in a landscape affected by event-driven environmental changes, primarily coastal wetland erosion and the deterioration of coastal and bayou ridges. I co-wrote the “Human Dimensions” section for the grant application. I am conducting archival research and co-leading students in the collection of oral histories of residents. The project’s budget is $30,000, part of the overall $500,000 grant. 
• Nicholls State University Research Council Grant, Spring 2021.
  • Description: The Research Council awarded a grant of $6,000 for the creation of a digital history lab. I wrote the grant application, and will serve as the head of the digital history lab. 
• Shryock Medal (Best paper by a graduate student), American Association for the History of Medicine, Spring 2019. 
• Visiting Scholar at the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, University of New Orleans, Fall 2018-present. 
• Research Grant, Georgetown Institute of Global History, Summer 2017. 
• Graduate Fellowship, Georgetown University, Fall 2015-Spring 2020. 
• George Windell Graduate Thesis Prize(Best Master’s Thesis), University of New Orleans, April 2016. 
• Michael Mizell-Nelson Public History Prize, University of New Orleans, May 2015. 
• Herman L. Midlo Research Award, University of New Orleans, May 2015. 
• Nick Mueller Public History Prize, University of New Orleans, May 2014. 
• Graduate Fellowship, University of New Orleans, Fall 2013-Spring 2015. 

Selected Conference Participation 

• Presenter, “A Great and Manifest Destiny”: Creating A White Medical District in New Orleans, 1900-1940,” American Association for the History of Medicine, Saratoga Springs, NY, April 2022. 
• Presenter and Panel Organizer, “‘A Bitter Reflection’: The Lived Experiences and ‘Intimate Dimensions’ of Enslaved and Free Black Patients of New Orleans’s Hotel Dieu Hospital, 1859-1869,” Louisiana Historical Association Annual Meeting, Baton Rouge, LA, March 2022.
• Chair, “Race, Criminalization, and the HIV/AIDS Crisis,” American Association for the History of Medicine, May 2021. 
• Moderator, Author Discussion Panel, American Association for the History of Medicine, May 2021.
• Presenter, “White Flight Hospitals in the Greater New Orleans Area, 1950s-1980s,” AmericanAssociation for the History of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 2020. 
• Presenter, “Healthcare and Urban Space in Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century New Orleans,” Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science, New Orleans, LA, March 2020. 
• Moderator, Politics of 20^thCentury Medicine, Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science, New Orleans, LA, March 2020. 
• Invited Chair and Discussant, “Planning for Health: Past & Present,” Society for American City and Regional Planning History’s National Conference on Planning History, Arlington, VA, Nov. 2019. 
• Presenter, “A Mecca for Those Ill and Disabled’: Flint Goodridge Hospital and Black Healthcare in Twentieth Century New Orleans,” Urban History Biennial Conference, Columbia, S.C., Oct. 2018.
• Presenter, “Freedpeople and the Federal Government’s First Public Housing in Washington D.C,” Federal History Conference, National Archives, Washington, D.C., April 2017. 
• Presenter, “Louisiana’s Digital Footprint: An Exploration of Louisiana’s Digital History Projects,” Louisiana Historical Association Annual Meeting, Lafayette, LA, March 2015.
• Presenter, “Palmer Park: A Digital and Micro History,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY, January 2015.
• Presenter, “New Orleans Public Parks as Sites of Segregation and Resistance,” Urban History Association Biennial Conference, Philadelphia, PA, October 2014.

Academic Service

• Program and Curriculum Development
  • Black Studies Certificate Program Coordinator, Nicholls State University, Fall 2021-present.
    • Description: I supervise students enrolling in the Black Studies Certificate Program. I wrote the proposal for the program, successfully petitioned the university to offer the certificate, and designed the curriculum. 
  • Faculty Cohort, Open Textbooks Pilot Program, July 2020-present.
    • Description: I am one of four professors in Louisiana selected to develop an Open Education Resource dual enrollment United States History course. The program is funded by a $2 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education. 
  • Public History Committee, Nicholls State University, Fall 2020-Spring 2021. 
    • Description: I prepared and wrote the successful application for the department to offer a new Public History certificate. This program is the first certificate program offered by the university.  
  • Medical Humanities Certificate Program, Nicholls State University, Summer 2020-present.
    • Description: I am creating the curriculum material and application for an interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate program in Medical Humanities. 

• University Committees 
  • Black History Month Committee, Nicholls State University, Fall 2020-present.

• Supervised Honors Thesis
  • Drew Theriot, “The Origins of Substandard Education in Louisiana,” Fall 2020-Spring 2021. 

• Student Organizations
  • Co-Advisor for the CLIO-History Club, Fall 2021-present

• Academic Organizations
  • Kemper Williams Prize Committee, Louisiana Historical Association, Fall 2020-present. 
  • Publications Committee, Louisiana Historical Association, Spring 2022-present. 

• University Community Service Organizations
  • Assistant Director, Alternative Winter and Spring Break Programs, Rutgers University, Fall 2006-Spring 2010. 
  • Training Coordinator, Department of Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistance, Rutgers University, Fall 2001-Spring 2005. 

Public History Positions and Projects

• Director, Digital History Lab, Nicholls State University, Fall 2021-Present. 

• Co-Coordinator, Pelican State Goes to War, The National World War II Museum and Nicholls State University, Fall 2021.

• Facilitator and Speaker, Normandy Academy, National World War II Museum, Summer 2022. 

• Facilitator and Speaker, Summer Leadership Academy, National World War II Museum, Summer 2021-present.  

• Assistant Editor, The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association, Spring 2019-Spring 2020.  

• Researcher, Georgetown Slavery Archive, Georgetown University, Spring 2016-Spring 2017.  

• Intern, Space History Program, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Summer 2016.   

• Researcher, Freedom on the Move: A Database of Fugitives from North American Slavery, Fall 2014-Spring 2015. 

• Intern, Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Summer 2014.  

• Researcher, New Orleans Historical,University of New Orleans, Fall 2013-Spring 2015. 

• Creator, Palmer ParkMobile Enhanced Historical Tour, New Orleans Historical, Spring 2015. 

Invited Talks and Interviews

• “The Historical Epidemiology of Yellow Fever in Louisiana,” Nicholls State University Honors Forum, October 2020. 

• “African American Health and Healthcare History in New Orleans,” Newcastle University, October 2020. 
• Stephanie Lee, “Anatomy of a Racial Reckoning,” Buzzfeed News May 19, 2022.  

• Jonah Goldman Kay, “How the New Orleans Revival left Bus Riders Behind,” Bloomberg City Lab January 27, 2021. 

Other Employment

• Construction and Volunteer Supervisor,Habitat for Humanity, Summer 2012-Summer 2015.  

• AmeriCorps National Service Member, Summer 2010-Summer 2012.