C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience | Staff

Staff

Adam Goodheart
Hodson Trust-Griswold Director
C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the
American Experience
410-810-7166
agoodheart2@washcoll.edu

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Adam Goodheart is a historian, travel essayist, and critic whose work often deals with the intersection of the present and the past. A 1992 graduate of Harvard, he was a founder and senior editor of Civilization, the magazine of the Library of Congress, which won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in its first year of publication. He has been a prolific writer, contributing frequent essays and reviews to such publications as the New York Times (where he also served as deputy editor of the Op-Ed page), the American Scholar (of which he is a contributing editor and former Editorial Board member), the Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, Smithsonian, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. Goodheart’s travel writing has appeared in Outside, GQ, Conde Nast Traveler, and other magazines. Among the prizes his work has received are the Lowell Thomas Award of the Society of American Travel Writers (2004) the Henry Lawson Award for Travel Writing (2005), and the A.D. Emmart Award for excellence in the humanities (2007); his essays have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the 2003 and 2008 editions of the Norton Reader. In 2011, Adam Goodheart published his his first book titled 1861, which quickly became a New York Times Bestseller. He is the director of the American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series at the Smithsonian, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Humanities Council. Goodheart has taught courses in American Studies, English, History, Anthropology, and Art at Washington College, where in 2006 he became the director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. The position was endowed by the Hodson Trust later that year as the Hodson Trust-Griswold Directorship.

Nona Martin
Special Projects Manager
410-810-7157
nmartin2@washcoll.edu

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Nona P. Martin has a Ph.D. in History from George Mason University, where she studied with Lois Horton. Additionally, she holds a M.A. in Public History from Loyola University Chicago and also a trained librarian with an M.L.I.S. from the University of South Florida. Her training and research has focused on US History, Caribbean History, Urban History, Public History, and Oral History and Memory. Nona has also recently worked on the oral history of reconstruction and recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Nona’s dissertation, “’I’se a Man’: The 1942 Riot as an Attack on Bay Street, Discrimination and Injustice in the Bahamas,” explores a watershed event in the Bahamas’ social and political history. She demonstrates that the riot was the first sign of political awakening in the country’s black community and set in motion a political snowball that resulted in majority rule and independence for the country.Nona is also interested in racial aspects of American sports history. She’s currently researching the historical significance of the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers’ 1963 basketball team. The ’63 Ramblers’ started four black players at a time when there was an unwritten rule in the NCAA that only allowed two blacks on the floor at any given time. Not only did they advance civil rights in the United States, but they won the NCAA championship that year. She has publications in the Journal of Socio-Economics, Space and Culture, The Journal of Caribbean History, Island Studies Journal and Studies in Emergent Order. Born in the Bahamas, she, her husband and their bossy orange tabby split their time between Chestertown, MD and Manassas, VA.

Jenifer Emley
Center Coordinator/Office Manager
410-810-7161
jemley2@washcoll.edu

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Jenifer Emley has had many years of work in non-profits, at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Arena Stage, and the National Housing Partnership in Washington, D.C. In New York, she was Executive Director of the Goldfarb Foundation, and worked at Ted Bates & Co. advertising, Hunter College, and the O’Neill Theater Center. She has also managed the Ralph Lemon Dance Company and was Company Manager at Yale Repertory Theatre. Before coming to the Starr Center, she worked for the Kent County Commissioners, for former Washington College President John Toll, and at everyone’s favorite Chestertown shop, Twigs and Teacups. Here at the Custom House, Emley divides her time between the Starr Center and the Center for Environment & Society. She volunteers for Kent County’s Character Counts program, as well as the Church Hill Theatre and The Prince Theatre. A graduate of Emerson College and Yale University, she is on the Board of Overseers for The Boston Conservatory, and is also a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, Station New London (CT).

Lois Kitz
George Washington Book Prize Coordinator
410-810-7165
lkitz2@washcoll.edu

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Lois Kitz comes to Washington College after over two decades of work in the professional non-profit theatres of Houston, New York and the especially vibrant theatre community of Philadelphia. As a longtime production staff member at Philadelphia Theatre Company, she helped bring to the stage over 85 productions including more than a dozen world premieres. As Company Manager and Casting Director at PTC, Kitz was responsible for the oversight of the acting company as well as communication between the company and the major unions of the theater, including Actor’s Equity and the Society for Directors and Choreographers. She served on the 2009 negotiating team that crafted the contracts between Actors’ Equity and the League of Resident Theatres and, for several years, was part of the Barrymore Oversight Committee, the awards program administered by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Kitz has guest lectured at the University of the Arts and Temple University, from which she graduated with a B.A. in Theatre.

Michael Buckley
Program Manager
410-810-7156
mbuckley3@washcoll.edu

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Michael Buckley is an accomplished program/arts administrator, journalist and radio documentarian. For the past 18 years, Buckley has hosted a weekly radio program that airs on 103.1 WRNR-FM Annapolis. His show includes a widely acclaimed oral history interview series, “Voices of the Chesapeake Bay.” For this series, Buckley crisscrosses the region, interviewing some of its most fascinating residents: farmers, Native Americans, watermen, writers, politicians. The show has been recognized with two Governor’s Citations for Community Service and several “Best of Baltimore” awards from the Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Magazine, and others. Buckley’s interviews have been collected in both a boxed set of 10 CDs and a book, Voices of the Chesapeake Bay (Schiffer Publishing). Buckley teaches the ongoing C.V. Starr Center Oral History Workshop. He has also been a founding member and managing director of the American Historical Theatre, public relations coordinator of the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival, founder of the Philadelphia Town Meeting, and program coordinator of the New York Open Center for the Arts and Humanities, and is also a weekly columnist and features writer for The Capital in Annapolis.