Luncheon Speaker - Tara Y. White, Ph.D.

Dr. Tara Y. White is public historian who has been active in researching, interpreting, and managing history organizations for more than fifteen years.  Dr. White has a Ph.D. in public history from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro in May 2010; her dissertation examines the roles of African American women’s organizations in preserving historic sites.  Dr. White’s research fields include public history, Southern history, and African American women’s history.  Her broad museum experience includes work in museum administration, visitor services, interpretation, and collections management.

Dr. White taught courses in American social history, historical research, and class, race and gender at the Cooperstown Graduate Program during the 2007-08 academic year.  She was formerly the site director for the Alabama State Capitol, as well as the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, both managed by the Alabama Historical Commission in Montgomery. She has worked with a number of history museums and historic sites in various capacities.  Those institutions include the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture at Alabama State University, National Museum of American History, Genesee Country Village and Museum, The History Channel, Heritage Philadelphia, Heritage New York, Sloss Furnaces, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. She is also a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Cooperstown Graduate Program in history museum studies at SUNY Oneonta. Dr. White holds memberships in various regional and national professional associations.