Staff


Project Director, Natalie M. Fousekis, PhD

Natalie M. Fousekis, PhD.

Project Director

Natalie Fousekis is Director of the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History (COPH) and Professor of History at CSU Fullerton. She specializes in modern U.S. History, grassroots politics, women’s history, and oral history.  Fousekis has been engaged in oral history work for almost twenty-five years — conducting dozens of interviews, teaching oral history methodology to undergraduate students, graduate students, and community members. She has coordinated and directed a number of oral history projects, including the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Oral History Project in collaboration with the Orange County Great Park Corporation, as well as the Women, Politics, and Activism Since Suffrage Project (WPA) funded by a major research grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. In 2011 she also received a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant for COPH’s Renovation and Expansion Initiative. Fousekis has served on and chaired Oral History Association (OHA) committees. She will serve as OHA Vice President in 2018 and President in 2019. Her book Demanding Child Care: Women’s Activism and the Politics of Welfare, 1940-1971 (2011) uses oral histories among other sources to examine a grassroots movement waged by mothers and educators to preserve California’s public child care program from World War II to the War on Poverty.


Project Manager, Abby Waldrop

Abby Waldrop

Project Manager

Abby Waldrop is Project Manager at the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History, where she oversees the Women, Politics, and Activism (WPA) Oral History Project, and assists students and researchers in acquirement, accession, and methodology of oral history. A Los Angeles native, Waldrop received her B.A. from CSU Northridge and M.A. from CSU Fullerton. Her graduate thesis, Deemed Worthy: Paper Film Prints and the Politics of Motion Picture Preservation (2013) argued for the rightful necessity of film preservation as a cultural and public art form. In addition to WPA, Waldrop has conducted numerous oral histories for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Oral History Project and the Orange County Politics Oral History Project.


Archivist, Natalie Navar

Natalie Navar

Archivist

Natalie Navar is Archivist for the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History. She earned an M.A. in Oral and Public History from CSU Fullerton and also attained an MMLIS from the University of Southern California. In addition to her graduate project Images of Women in the UFW (2015), Navar conducted dozens of oral histories for six different oral and public history projects. For WPA Navar compiled extensive metadata and managed research assistants in text and video editing, digitization, cataloging, and categorization.


Social Media, Crystal Wshart

Crystal Wishart

Social Media

Crystal Wishart received her B.A. from CSU, Fullerton (2010), and is currently enrolled in their Professional Communications program pursuing her M.A. Her studies and research focus on the portrayal of women in various forms of media. The subject of her thesis centers on the media effects of the 2016 Presidential Election in relation to women running for elected office.


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Brian Mashburn

Videographer

Originally from Anaheim, California, Brian Mashburn received his B.A. in History from CSU Fullerton (2013). During his time at CSUF, he completed an internship at the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History and conducted dozens of interviews for the El Toro Marine Corps Air station Oral History Project. He now serves as videographer and editor for the Women, Politics, and Activism Oral History Project, CSUF Philanthropic Board/Vision and Visionaries Oral History Project, and the Orange County Politics Oral History Project.


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Adam Morley

Videographer

Adam Morley graduated from CSU Fullerton (2015) with a major in Radio/TV/Film and a minor in History and Entrepreneurship. As a student of Dr. Natalie M. Fousekis, Morley joined the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History in 2013. Since then he has filmed dozens of oral history interviews, as well as edited and produced a multitude of project vignettes. Morley currently works in film production in Los Angeles.


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Analia Cabral

Research Associate

Originally from Pomona, California, Analia Cabral received her B.A. in History and her B.F.A. in Art Photography from Cal State Fullerton. Her areas of scholarly interest include race, ethnicity, class, women, sexuality, politics, police brutality, and art activism. She completed an extensive internship at the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History, where she conducted interviews for the Women, Politics, and Activism project, many of those with Latina community activists.


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Mark T. Garcia

Research Associate

Mark T. Garcia is a graduate student at CSU, Fullerton. His exhibition contributions include Hard Times in the OC (Oakland Museum of California, 2013) and Voces de Liberación: Latinas in Politics in Southern California (Salz- Pollak Atrium Gallery, 2017), as well as participation in the Long Table Los Angeles Oral History Festival. Garcia interned at the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History where he updated several collections including digitization of photographs and audio files. He also served as Oral History Review Editorial Assistant for the Oral History Association (OHA) annual meeting in Long Beach, CA. Garcia is currently completing his graduate project Open Wheels, Open City: The Grand Prix of Long Beach (2019). You can follow him on Twitter @HistoryBuffMark.


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Skye Gomez

Research Associate

Skye Gomez earned her B.A. in History from CSU, San Bernardino (2012) and her M.A. in History from CSU, Fullerton (2017). Her research interests include gender, race, culture, community, and identity in Native American, Chicana/o, Public and Oral History. Her M.A. public history project recorded the formation and role of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs, California, through an oral history collection which outlined identity, family, and community. In addition to her work on the Women, Politics, and Activism project, she has contributed to several digital history projects at the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History. Skye is a first-generation college student, and is originally from Victorville, California. 


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Jael Muller

Research Associate

Jael Alejandra Muller received both her B.A. (2011) and M.A. (2017) in History from CSU Fullerton. Her research interests include Latina/o History, Latin-American History, and Public History. Her master’s project exhibit, Voces de Liberación: Latinas in Politics in Southern California (Salz- Pollak Atrium Gallery, 2017) showcased oral histories of Latinas in Southern California who work towards the betterment of their communities in both the social and political spheres.


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Jared Otto

Research Associate

Jared Otto currently attends CSU, Fullerton as an M.A. candidate in Oral and Public History. His Master’s research will be an oral history collection focusing on Jewish women in politics in Los Angeles, specifically focusing on how faith and identity influence their political career. He earned his B.A. in History with a concentration in European civilizations, where he graduated Cum Laude, and held membership in the school’s Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society. His research interests include Early Modern Europe, the Reformation, Church history, and modern Messianic and Jewish communities in Southern California. In addition to continuing in the public history field, Otto seeks to one day teach as an adjunct professor, utilizing a public and oral history methodology.


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Carie Rael

Research Associate

Carie Rael is an alumni from CSU Fullerton where she received her B.A. in Comparative Religion and History and her M.A. in History. She worked at the Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History as the office manager and was able to work on projects like Women, Politics, and Activism Since Suffrage.  She is currently pursuing her PhD in History at Rutgers University with an emphasis in modern U.S. History and a minor in Women and Gender History. 


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Angela Salter

Research Associate

Angela Salter completed her B.A. in History at CSU, Long Beach, and M.A. in Public History at CSU, Fullerton. Most recently, she received her Digitization Skills for Libraries and Cultural Heritage Intuitions Certificate from Pasadena City College. Salter’s research interests include oral history, community history, and digital archiving. Salter was a Getty MUI research intern at the Wende Museum, and has worked on digital projects for the LA84 Foundation and CSU, Dominguez Hills. She currently works as a library and archives assistant for the Anaheim Heritage Center.


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Scherly Virgill

Research Associate

Born in Guatemala City, Scherly Virgill arrived in the United States in 1994. As an undergraduate at CSU, Northridge, Virgill collaborated with other Central American students in the establishment of the first Central American Studies Program in the nation. Virgill’s interests cover the experiences of Central Americans, especially the histories of Afro-descendant communities of Guatemala. While working on her History M.A. at CSU, Fullerton, Virgill conducted several interviews for the Women, Politics, and Activism project (WPA), which highlighted pioneer women involved in education, city councils, and the League of Women Voters. Her work on WPA inspired her own thesis project, Garífunas: Uncovering the Narratives of War Violence and Invisibility during Guatemala’s Internal Armed Conflict (2018).


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David Wells

Research Associate

David Wells graduated summa cum laude from Chapman University, receiving his B.A. in History and in French, with a minor in Film Studies. At Chapman, he served as a Chief Editor for the 2010 edition of Voces Novae, an electronic history journal published by the Alpha Mu Gamma chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta honor society. Wells is a history graduate student at CSU, Fullerton, with an emphasis on Public History. He served as Editor-in-Chief for the 2016-2017 edition of Voices, the student journal published by the Cultural and Public History Association (CPHA), and serves as the organization’s president. His interests lie in cultural history and the study of mentalities, and looks forward to working professionally in a museum setting.