SPOHP Alumni

Mississippi Field Trip Alumni

Kenisha Cauley

Check back soon for bio!

Chris Duryea

1. Chris graduated from the Paxon School for Advanced Studies in Jacksonville, FL prior to transferring to UF in 2009. She is majoring in History, with double minors in Education and Russian Studies, and completed a study abroad program this past summer at Moscow State University.
2. She has worked with SPOHP since 2010, and is currently writing an honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Paul Ortiz on the history of segregation in education, focusing on the current trend of resegregation in contrast to the ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education. She was an undergraduate researcher on the 2012 Mississippi Delta Research Trip and is using research with former teachers and students from SPOHP's AAHP and Mississippi Freedom Project collections in her thesis.
3. Chris has an ESOL certification and is planning to be a teacher. Within the Gainesville area, she has worked with students tutoring in after-school centers through America Reads, and currently coaches a debate team at PK Yonge. She is an avid volunteer with Gainesville Rabbit Rescue, and is very passionate about her work there.

Josh Moore

1. Josh Moore began attending the University of Florida in 2010 to study history after receiving his AA. He became an intern at SPOHP, transcribing interviews with World War II veterans and Civil Rights activists, and was an undergraduate researcher on the 2010 Mississippi Delta Research Trip. He currently attends the University of South Florida, studying criminology, and returned as a researcher for the 2011 Mississippi Delta Research Trip.
2. Of his experiences in the Delta, Josh said: “Not only was I able to listen to the struggles people went through during the Civil Rights Movement, but I was also able to witness it. After having an eye-opening experience on [the Mississippi Delta trip], my views on a lot of things changed. I became more focused on the history of the area and more focused on how law enforcement was used against people, rather than for them...I was even allowed to sit in on an interview with the hopeful [Bolivar County] sheriff, performed by Dr. Ortiz. This not only strengthened my love for history, but for my current major as well.”
3. In his free time, Josh enjoys hunting and telling stories with his family at his home in Spring Hill, Florida.

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Stacey Nelson

1. Stacey was a participant in our 2008 field trip to Mississippi. She was a panelist at our 2009 symposium organized by SPOHP students to discuss their experiences in the Mississippi research project.
2. She is a former All-American pitcher for the Florida Gators softball team, and is considered one of the best pitchers in NCAA softball history, earning numerous awards. She led University of Florida to its first Women's College World Series berth in 2008. Nelson is now pitching for the United States women's national softball team.
3. The number of Nelson’s extra-curricular activities rivals her athletic awards that resulted in her being awarded the Ben Hill Griffin Award in 2009, which recognizes and honors the top male and female student-athletes who excel in both athletic and academic achievement and extra-curricular involvement.
4. Read more about Stacey

Amanda Noll

Originally from Gainesville, Florida, Amanda graduated with honors from Florida State University with a dual B.A. in History and International Affairs as well as a minor in Museum Studies. While at FSU, Amanda interned at the Museum of London, sparking her interest in curatorial research and exhibit development.

While working with SPOHP, Amanada participated in several research trips to Mississippi and Orlando, which helped her develop her interest in Public History and community outreach.

She is currently working on an M.A. in Public History with a concentration in Museum Studies at the University of South Carolina. Amanda most recently interned at the New York based media design firm, Local Projects. She has since continued to explore her interest of digital media and interactive technology in the field of Public History.

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Nailah Summers

1. Nailah Summers was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised in Miami Beach by her Cuban-American mother and her African-American father. Nailah received her Associate Degree in Philosophy from Miami Dade College and is now a senior at the University of Florida.
2. In the summer of 2012, Nailah became an intern for The Dream Defenders, a new student-led coalition of black and brown youth across the state of Florida working to create social change by training and organizing youth in nonviolent civil disobedience, civic engagement, and direct action while taking action on issues that impact their communities, like racial profiling and the school-to-prison-pipeline.
3. Nailah will be going to law school and aspires to practice public interest and civil rights law.

Caroline Vickers

1. Caroline Vickers earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a minor in Leadership Studies from the University of Florida in 2012.
2. She became involved in SPOHP as a volunteer for SPOHP programs. Caroline and was a student interviewer during the annual Mississippi Delta trip and program planner for Inside the Activists Studio: A Sit Down with Margaret Block.
3. Under the direction of Professor Paul Ortiz, she completed a senior thesis on Booker T. Washington's influence on Southern Education. She is currently attending Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C.

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Recent SPOHP Alumni

Allen Kent

• Allen Kent earned his Ph.D. in Modern American/African American History. He is researching and writing a dissertation on black police unionism in Chicago in the post-World War II era. After writing an M.A. paper on black police and the Black Panther Party in Oakland, Allen became interested in African American officers who were attempting to curb the inherently discriminatory police system.
• The African American Police League, founded in Chicago in 1968, modeled their organization on strategies developed during the years of direct-action civil rights and black power protests. Under their slogan of "Black Power through the Law," the AAPL used community organizing, discrimination lawsuits, and group solidarity to work for change from inside the Chicago Police Department.
• Allen received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2007) and his M.A. from the University of Florida (2010). After taking Dr. Ortiz's graduate seminar on oral history, he became a graduate intern in Spring 2011 and then a Graduate Coordinator at SPOHP in Spring 2012.
• kakent@ufl.edu

Alexis Conavay

1. After graduating from UF in the summer of 2011 with a BA in History and English Literature, Alexis moved to Chicago for a year-long internship in the Education Department at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2. She since has become the Education Outreach Coordinator for the Museum. In that capacity she support the Education Department by taking an active role in supporting and facilitating training workshops to teachers. These workshops focus on integrating character education and social justice with Holocaust and genocide history to enrich their classroom curriculum. She also coordinates outreach to private, parochial, and public grade schools to develop accessibility of Holocaust and genocide history with the museum’s focus being on social mobilization as a historical obligation.
3. She hopes to attend grad school for Women's and Gender Studies with a focus in the history of revolt. She is interested in researching how women interact and engage in both spacial and social confinement throughout history.
4. Alexis was an intern with SPOHP during the year 2010.

Nicole Cox

1. Nicole is finishing her PhD in history with a dissertation on environmental history. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of South Florida and worked in USF’s oral history program as well.
2. Nicole started working at SPOHP in 2009, and worked as a transcriber and special projects researcher before becoming Graduate Coordinator in 2010. Nicole worked diligently with SPOHP coordinator Jennifer Lyon to create our academic internship program as well as to modernize our transcribing and audit editing style guide.
3. Nicole taught UF’s Oral History Seminar in the Summer Session, 2012, has led oral history workshop sessions at UF, and has lectured frequently regarding SPOHP’s academic mission.
4. She was the recipient of the Florida Historical Quarterly's Arthur W. Thompson Award for her essay, "Selling Seduction: Women and Feminine Nature in 1920s Florida Advertising," 89 (Fall 2010): 186-209
5. You can contact Nicole at nccox@ufl.edu

Caroline Dragiff

1. Caroline was born in New Hampshire and grew up in Jacksonville, FL as the second of six children. After realizing that organized sports were not her forte, she devoted more time to her love of music and later won several awards for singing in a high school pageant. She was also very active in volunteer work, specifically with children and families in need.
2. After four years at the University of Florida, she graduated with a B.A. in Advertising and a minor in Business Administration. While in college, and for a year post, Caroline worked for the Samuel Proctor Oral History program as a transcriber, office assistant and a publicity coordinator, helping to advertise and organize local events. Her work at SPOHP prepared her well for her next venture, when in 2008 she moved to Atlanta, GA to pursue a career in advertising, where she successfully continues to work.
3. Caroline's passions include traveling, spending time with friends and family, drinking wine and eating all kinds of cheese. She has recently found a love for running and ran her first half marathon this past spring.

Asha Dave

1. Asha (Davé) Junot worked at SPOHP during her junior and senior years at UF. Asha's primary job was to transcribe recorded interviews, but she also helped with event planning. She loved listening to the voices and stories of World War I and II Veterans, former state and university leaders, as well as old Florida farmers who spoke about the good ole days.
2. Asha's time at SPOHP taught her the value of preserving history. After earning a broadcast journalism degree and meteorology certificate, Asha took a job as a news reporter/weather forecaster in Wilmington, NC.
3. Now, Asha lives with her husband Jake and hound dog Maxwell in Florida and owns Bright Frame Films, a videography company.

Candice Ellis

1. Candice enrolled as an academic intern with SPOHP in 2009 and joined the staff the following year as a transcriptionist and researcher. Candice graduated with honors in history at the University of Florida in 2010. She was the recipient of the 2011 Leland Hawes Prize in Florida History awarded by the Tampa Bay History Center and the University of South Florida's Florida Studies Center.
2. Candice matriculated to the MA history program at UF in 2010. She traveled with SPOHP to the Mississippi Delta three times, and wrote her master’s thesis on the rise of the UFCW Catfish Worker’s union in the Delta. Candice coordinated several major research projects at SPOHP including the Panama Canal initiative, the Federal Judges Project, and served as research team leader during our Mississippi Delta field trip in 2011.
3. Candice is now enrolled in the history PhD program at George Washington University

Ayana Flewellen

1. Ayana was an intern and researcher with the African Americans in Alachua County Research Project from 2010-2012.
2. Ayana is now a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently pursuing a M.A. in African and African Diaspora Studies and a PhD in Anthropology with a specialization in archaeology. She received her BA in Anthropology and a minor is African American Studies from the University of Florida in 2011.
3. Since her internship with the SPOHP in the Spring of 2010, she has gone on to work with the Breaking New Ground oral history project as a research fellow and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture as an intern working on their Civil Rights Oral History Project.
4. You can contact Katelyn at aaflewellen@gmail.com

Max J Gelber

1. From an early age, Max has had a profound interest in cultural diversity, music, language learning and the stories and experiences of peoples around the globe. At 19, his life was transformed when he left Gainesville to study Mandarin Chinese language and literature in Chengdu, and after that year and a half of new experiences, he was truly addicted to living in places unfamiliar to him.
2. After his return to UF, Max interned at SPOHP (Spring 2011) and had the opportunity to work alongside faculty and staff to interview Vietnam Veteran Richard Hudgens for the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project and Dr. Cynthia Chennault, Associate Professor of Chinese at UF. Since then, Max has graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Florida with a Bachelor's Degree in East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures, where his studies also included Anthropology and Music.
3. During his time as an undergraduate student, Max also studied Uyghur Language at Indiana University Bloomington, studied abroad in the Kyrgyz Republic for a semester and interned at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. After teaching at a Global Model UN camp in Shanghai and Beijing this past summer, Max has continued teaching English in the Kyrgyz Republic as a 2012-2013 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). Next year, Max intends on pursuing his MA degree in Asian Studies with a focus on China and Central Asia.
4. As Max remembers, "Working at SPOHP challenged my preconceived notions about the academic field of history and historiography. Taking my own interviews, and transcribing others', allowed me to actually extend the dialogue of the field, contributing the real stories of real people in real time, without the commitment of publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. Oral History showed me that history is accessible to everyone, and for that I am greatly indebted to the faculty and staff at SPOHP!"
5. Max is currently finishing up his Fullbright scholarship and is in the process of applying to graduate schools. You can contact Max at gelbermj@gmail.com

Keilani Jacquot

1. Keilani graduated from UF in 2011 with Bachelor degrees in both Anthropology and Spanish. She volunteers with SPOHP on various projects, from conducting and transcribing interviews to collaborating with community organizations to creating educational materials.
2. Her most recent project involved updating and creating educational programming for the Pleasant Street Historic Society that will be made available to the public online. Keilani is grateful for the opportunity to offer her time and services to SPOHP.

Lauren Krebs

1. Lauren Krebs graduated from the University of Florida in 2012. She originally enrolled as an intern at SPOHP in 2010. Lauren became the program’s first official web master, a position she held until she graduated.
2. Lauren is currently working as a teacher and is planning to attend graduate school in the future.

Ronald LaFrance

1. Ronald LaFrance attended the University of Florida and graduated in August of 2011. Since interning at the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program he has worked in the education field. He is currently serving as a City Year Miami Corps member through Americorps and is considering coming back to the school he serves as a world history teacher.
2. "Everyday I use the skills I gained while interning at SPOPH while I serve at Miami Edison Senior High school. These skills include teamwork abilities, social development, and the knowledge gained from working in an office environment".

Jennifer A. Lyon

1. Jennifer is completing her PhD in American History with a certificate in Museum Studies. She holds a B.S. in History and Political Science from Kansas State University, and an M.A. in American History from the University of Florida.
2. Jennifer joined SPOHP in 2009 as a co-Graduate Coordinator, and became Graduate Coordinator in 2010. In 2011, Jennifer interned in Washington, D.C. and then worked as an independent contractor in Brooklyn, New York for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
3. In 2012, she worked for Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. She currently works remotely for Monticello, and as a Teaching Associate at the University of Florida.

Katelyn McKey

1. Katelyn McKey graduated from UF, majoring in Journalism.
2. She joined SPOHP as an intern in spring 2010, and became a staff member in summer 2010.
3. Katelyn was a media outreach specialist at SPOHP. In this capacity, she wrote news releases for our major public programs, and she worked with staff at the University of Florida Public Relations office to promote our educational events.

Sarah McNamara

1. Sarah McNamara was an academic intern at SPOHP during 2008 and 2009. She completed a history honors thesis at UF and matriculated to the History PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. Her advisers are Dr. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and Zaragosa Vargas.
2. Sarah was the recipient of the 2012 Julian Pleasants Award and conducted her research at SPOHP on the history of Latina women’s activism in the South.
3. She was also the 2009 recipient of the Leland Hawes Prize in Florida History, for her essay "How to Make an American: The Americanization of Ybor City's Latin Community".
4. She is a graduate research assistant at the Southern Oral History Program at UNC-Chapel Hill.
5. You can contact Sarah at sarahmc@email.unc.edu

Julian Ruiz

1. Julian Ruiz was an intern at SPOHP for a full year at SPOHP through two internship cycles. He graduated from the University of Florida in May 2012 with a bachelors degree in Political Science, magna cum laude, and minors in History and Education. He hopes to attend law school in the fall of 2013 and pursue a joint degree, JD and MBA, while attending graduate school.
2. Julian remembers, "A key skill that I retained from my time at SPOHP is the ability to conduct professional interviews...when an individual agrees to an interview, it is as if she is granting access to her memories; after a certain point, the process feels more like a conversation rather than an actual interview, and so the refinement of this ability is beneficial on both a personal and professional level. I believe that my internship at SPOHP taught me that history can come alive through these interviews, and that any individual who is offered the chance to participate should embrace it. I could not be happier with my experience at SPOHP; I felt as though I had a family, and was not just a collection of interns."

Distinguished Alumni

Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham

1. "Sam Proctor was one of the most influential Floridians of the last half century. Through his inspirational teaching, thousands of students were introduced to the history of our state and given a better understanding of the personalities and events that made Florida what it is today. He made history an exciting adventure.”
   -Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham
2. Bob Graham is the former 2-term governor of Florida and served for 18 years in the United States Senate. This is combined with 12 years in the Florida legislature for a total of 38 years of public service.
3. He received a bachelor's degree in 1959 in political science from the University of Florida, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. While at UF he was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame and was inducted into Florida Blue Key. He was a student of Samuel Proctor's in the 1950s and the two were close friends for over half a century.
4. Senator Graham serves as the chair of the Board of Overseers of the Graham Center for Public Service. This Center, with a home at the University of Florida, commenced programs in the fall of 2007 in the areas of Public Service, Homeland Security, and the Americas, subjects in which he has been deeply involved during his public career.
5. Learn more about Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham and the Graham Center for Public Service

Cynthia Barnett

Interviewer

1. Cynthia Barnett is a long-time journalist who has reported on freshwater issues from the Suwannee River to Singapore. She is author of the new book Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, which calls for a water ethic for America.
2. Ms. Barnett’s previous book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards. Ms. Barnett has worked for newspapers and magazines for 25 years.
3. Her numerous journalism awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states. She earned a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in American history with a specialization in environmental history, both from the University of Florida.
4. In 2004, she was awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying freshwater supply. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and two water-loving grade-schoolers.
5. Read Cynthia's Bio

Dr. Alan Bliss

Interviewer

1. From 1999 until 2001, Alan Bliss was the SPOHP program coordinator. The job was his first appointment as a graduate student in history at UF. Alan worked closely with Dr. Pleasants and the late Dr. Proctor, who though he was emeritus, still came into the office every day. He also worked with Roberta Peacock, Jim Ellison, Ben Houston, and various other staff and volunteers.
2. Alan’s work at SPOHP led him to explore many research avenues that might otherwise have gone permanently uncharted. Alan uses oral history continually in his research, and practiced O.H. professionally as a grad student and has continued to do so since finishing his Ph.D at UF in 2010.
3. In addition, Alan teaches a senior-level seminar on oral history at University of North Florida. Alan has conducted dozens of interviews that are archived in various collections at the SPOHP. Presently he is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of North Florida.

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Joel Buchanan

Interviewer

1. On March 17, 2009, UF President Bernie Machen presented Joel Buchanan with an achievement award in honor of his work to preserve and promote African American history for future generations. During the 1980s, Joel Buchanan documented the lives of many residents in Gainesville's Fifth Avenue community. These interviews are now part of the Oral History Program's collection. Joel Buchanan is a recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Keeper of the Dream Award and the Rosa Parks Silent Courage Award

Dr. Steve Davis

1. Steve Davis earned his PhD in history at the University of Florida in 2010. He served as graduate research assistant as well as graduate coordinator of SPOHP between 2008 and 2010.
2. He is currently an assistant professor in history at the University of Kentucky.
3. You can read more about Dr. Davis HERE.

Dr. James M. Denham

1. James M. Denham directs the Lawton Chiles Center for Florida History and is Professor of History at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. A specialist in Florida, Southern, and Criminal Justice and Legal History, he is the author of four books, including A Rogue’s Paradise: Crime and Punishment in Antebellum Florida (1997) and Florida Sheriffs: A History (2001).
2. Denham's articles and reviews have appeared in the America Historical Review, American Journal of Legal History, Journal of Southern History, Florida Historical Quarterly, Florida Bar Journal, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and Georgia Historical Quarterly. Denham received his Ph. D degree in history from Florida State University but despite this fact was “mentored” in early in his career by Dr. Sam Proctor and worked with him in various pursuits. For example, Denham was a contributor to a Festschrift for Sam, Florida’s Heritage of Diversity: Essays in the Honor of Samuel Proctor (1997), which he still considers one of the greatest Gator-Seminole collaborations of all time!
3. Denham also worked with Julian Pleasants during his tenure as director of the SPOHP. In 2010 Denham was named historian of the U. S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and is currently at work on the book on the subject. In this work Denham has used Dr. Pleasants and Dr. Ortiz’s Oral histories of the judges and other persons relevant to the Middle District Court, and hopes to share his own work with the SPOHP as well.
4. You can read more about Dr. Denham HERE.

Dr. Mark I. Greenberg

Editor

1. Mark I. Greenberg received a B.A. from the University of Toronto, an M.A. from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Florida, and an M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. While at UF, he served as assistant editor of The Florida Historical Quarterly and research assistant in the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.
2. In 1997, he coedited Florida’s Heritage of Diversity: Essays in Honor of Samuel Proctor (Sentry Press), which contains his essay “Tampa Mayor Herman Glogowski: Jewish Leadership in Gilded Age Florida.” In addition to his work on Florida, Dr. Greenberg has published and lectured extensively on immigrant/ethnic history in the southern United States.
3. His articles appear in American Jewish History, American Jewish Archives, and The Georgia Historical Quarterly. In 2006 he co-edited Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History (Brandeis University Press) and authored The University of South Florida: The First Fifty Years (University of South Florida). Greenberg's areas of expertise include southern and immigrant/ethnic history (especially southern Jewish history), Florida history, USF history, and oral history. In 2007 History News Network at George Mason University profiled him as a “Top Young Historian.”
4. The same year, USF’s Committee on Issues of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity honored him with its Pride Award. As part of his responsibilities at USF, he directs the Libraries’ Oral History Program and serves on the board of trustees of the Tampa Bay History Center. In 2008, he helped create the USF Libraries Holocaust & Genocide Studies Center where he serves as its Head.
5. Read Dr. Greenberg's bio...

Dr. Benjamin Houston

1. Benjamin Houston is a lecturer at Newcastle University in England. He served as both coordinator and audit-editor during his PhD training, as well as doing interviews for several of the Program's projects.
2. Before moving overseas, he was Director of the Remembering African American Pittsburgh (RAP) oral history project at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for African American Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE). His book "The Nashville Way: Racial Etiquette and the Struggle for Social Justice in a Southern City" will be published in November 2012. He continues to explore the civil rights movement and oral history in his research.
3. "I have great memories of being at the SPOHP back in the days when it was buried in the bowels of the football stadium. Learning oral history and working under Julian Pleasants on several projects was a rich experience that balanced learning and laughing in equal measure. Sam Proctor often wandered by to share stories and chat, always walking out the door right after delivering an exquisitely delivered punchline. Working there was tremendous preparation for an academic career".
4. Read Dr. Houston's bio...

Dr. Thomas King

University of Nevada, Reno Oral History Program, Emeritus Director

1. Dr. King assisted Samuel Proctor with the Florida Historical Quarterly, conducted oral history interviews with Florida Seminole Indians, and went on to become the director of the University of Nevada at Reno Oral History Program. He earned his Ph.D. in History at UF in 1978.
2. You can read more about Dr. King HERE.
   

1. Kem Chatfield Jr.
2. Kedra Herbert
3. Woroma Ejiowhor
4. Ronald LaFrance - former intern and long-time volunteer for SPOHP

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
241 Pugh Hall
PO Box 115215
Gainesville, FL 32611

Phone: 352.392.7168
Fax: 352.846.1983

Email: tamjenk04@gmail.com

Links:

1. Oral History Links Page
2. Department of History
3. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
4. SPOHP Sitemap