Current Preserve WV AmeriCorps Members
Learn more about our new class of Members (listed in alphabetical order by first name) below and visit Preserve WV Stories to read about the service they are providing to revitalize our Mountain State.
Hi, I am Alexander Berg serving in Mount Hope, WV with Harmony for Hope of West Virginia as a second year PAWV Americorps member. I grew up in Southern West Virginia and have found my passion for preserving our rich history and heritage. Serving with PAWV’s Americorps program has given me the experience and knowledge that I need as I move forward into a career of Community Service and Historic Preservation.
Grave Creek Mount Archaeological Complex
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
Basil is a Pittsburgh, PA native and archaeologist serving at Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex. A recent MA graduate from Binghamton University, his research has been on Indigenous North America’s mortuary landscapes, museum studies, and archaeology and heritage law. He has spent many hours as a museum intern in archaeological collections.
Grave Creek Mound is a site dear to him, as it survives in the same burial complex as his MA case-study, Cresap Mound, once did. There is no shortage of interesting things to learn from West Virginia archaeological sites and Grave Creek Mound is no exception. Basil’s hope is that his work at Grave Creek will shine a better light on the importance of preserving and respecting Indigenous sites in the state and beyond.
When he is not studying archaeology, Basil is an avid enjoyer of art and is often working on perfecting a new crafting skill or finishing a watercolor painting.
Grave Creek Mound is a site dear to him, as it survives in the same burial complex as his MA case-study, Cresap Mound, once did. There is no shortage of interesting things to learn from West Virginia archaeological sites and Grave Creek Mound is no exception. Basil’s hope is that his work at Grave Creek will shine a better light on the importance of preserving and respecting Indigenous sites in the state and beyond.
When he is not studying archaeology, Basil is an avid enjoyer of art and is often working on perfecting a new crafting skill or finishing a watercolor painting.
Ohio County Public Library
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
My name is Candace Bennett. I am a first year Preserve WV AmeriCorps Member serving at The Hatfield McCoy Foundation Museum in Sarah Ann, WV. This site is something I am very passionate about as I am a native of Logan County, WV.
I am married to my best friend, Dana, together we have an adorable little boy and an amazing foster daughter. In my free time, I enjoy sharing my love of my home state with my family. We enjoy our adventure days in various parts of the state, hiking, and just seeing the sites!
I am married to my best friend, Dana, together we have an adorable little boy and an amazing foster daughter. In my free time, I enjoy sharing my love of my home state with my family. We enjoy our adventure days in various parts of the state, hiking, and just seeing the sites!
City of Ravenswood: Great Bend Museum
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
Faith Walker grew up in the Dayton, OH area and graduated from Miami University (the superior one in Ohio) in 2021 with a double major in Anthropology and Art & Architecture History, and a double minor in Anthropology and Museum Studies. She became a PAWV AmeriCorps member that fall and is now in her second term at the Great Bend Museum, in Ravenswood WV.
The museum started in 1972 but has struggled to stay open over the past couple decades. In 2020 it was transferred to the City of Ravenswood, which has been reviving it. In a sense they have been starting a museum from scratch, with little but the collection and the buildings to start with.
Faith likes the variety of work each day brings her - organizing and maintaining the collection, writing policies and procedures, developing a walking trail around the property, working with volunteers and interns, designing marketing materials (including her first billboard!), and becoming a local expert on the history of this area.
The museum started in 1972 but has struggled to stay open over the past couple decades. In 2020 it was transferred to the City of Ravenswood, which has been reviving it. In a sense they have been starting a museum from scratch, with little but the collection and the buildings to start with.
Faith likes the variety of work each day brings her - organizing and maintaining the collection, writing policies and procedures, developing a walking trail around the property, working with volunteers and interns, designing marketing materials (including her first billboard!), and becoming a local expert on the history of this area.
Wheeling Heritage
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
Hi! I’m Haley, and I prefer writing my bios in first person. I have been living in and around Wheeling for the past 9 years, and I must say, I’m a big fan. Before this I was living in Columbus, where I graduated with a BA in Comparative Cultural Studies from OSU. I soon discovered that it is exceedingly difficult to get a job with a BA in Comparative Cultural Studies (primarily because no one knows what it means). So then I got an MS in Marketing and Communications from Franklin University… people tend to know exactly what that means, which has been extremely helpful in paving a pretty solid career path.
I have been working under the marketing umbrella for the past 10+ years, with experience in PR/media relations, internal communications, marketing campaign strategy + execution, SEO, branding, content creation, digital analytics, and graphic design.
My favorite thing (besides reading) is that feeling you get when you contribute to something bigger than yourself. AmeriCorps, Wheeling Heritage, and Weelunk are sterling examples of places where the currency is contribution: your time, your thoughts, your words, your experiences, your work ethic. All of the best parts of who you are as a person are required to help preserve, improve, inform. So here we are, and I am jazzed as heck about it.
I have one human named Vida, two cats named Hank and Squigs McAllister, I am currently manifesting that my one-day husband’s name will be Jeffrey Goldblum, and my fun fact is that my crippling social anxiety manifests as aggressive friendliness.
I have been working under the marketing umbrella for the past 10+ years, with experience in PR/media relations, internal communications, marketing campaign strategy + execution, SEO, branding, content creation, digital analytics, and graphic design.
My favorite thing (besides reading) is that feeling you get when you contribute to something bigger than yourself. AmeriCorps, Wheeling Heritage, and Weelunk are sterling examples of places where the currency is contribution: your time, your thoughts, your words, your experiences, your work ethic. All of the best parts of who you are as a person are required to help preserve, improve, inform. So here we are, and I am jazzed as heck about it.
I have one human named Vida, two cats named Hank and Squigs McAllister, I am currently manifesting that my one-day husband’s name will be Jeffrey Goldblum, and my fun fact is that my crippling social anxiety manifests as aggressive friendliness.
Weston Historic Landmarks Commission
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
Jeremy Brannon
West Virginia Humanities Council - Programs
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
Jeremy Brannon is a Charleston, West Virginia native. The day he dropped out of high school in 1998 he immediately jumped into a GED preparatory program, snatched his GED 8-months later and began college five-months after that.
Brannon graduated from WV State University in 2007 with a B.S. in Communications. While enrolled in college Brannon created a handful of short films, wrote for his college newspaper The Yellow Jacket, worked behind-the-scenes of several WVSU/Charleston Stage Company theatrical productions, and was a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America. Brannon won second place at the WV International Film Festival’s 2007 Student Film Competition for his “Mother of the Year” trailer.
After graduation Brannon worked for and volunteered at several activist organizations, spent two sessions as a citizen lobbyist advocating for a ban on underground coal slurry injection at the WV State Capitol, and worked as a TV production assistant at a local news station.
Beginning in 2016, Brannon served three-terms as an AmeriCorps VISTA. As an AmeriCorps VISTA Brannon raised over $2,500 in cash money, and $7,000 in in-kind donations. While serving at WVSU Extension Service, Brannon created their Farming and Food Manufacturing workshop series, created the WV Urban Agriculture Conference’s first FFA Speech Competition, helped create West Virginia’s first agriculture resource guide and spearheaded an effort to create a new agriculture CTE program for a Kanawha County high school.
In his spare time Brannon hosts the quasi-satirical podcast, Mothman in the Bible Belt, on the Appalachian experience.
Brannon graduated from WV State University in 2007 with a B.S. in Communications. While enrolled in college Brannon created a handful of short films, wrote for his college newspaper The Yellow Jacket, worked behind-the-scenes of several WVSU/Charleston Stage Company theatrical productions, and was a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America. Brannon won second place at the WV International Film Festival’s 2007 Student Film Competition for his “Mother of the Year” trailer.
After graduation Brannon worked for and volunteered at several activist organizations, spent two sessions as a citizen lobbyist advocating for a ban on underground coal slurry injection at the WV State Capitol, and worked as a TV production assistant at a local news station.
Beginning in 2016, Brannon served three-terms as an AmeriCorps VISTA. As an AmeriCorps VISTA Brannon raised over $2,500 in cash money, and $7,000 in in-kind donations. While serving at WVSU Extension Service, Brannon created their Farming and Food Manufacturing workshop series, created the WV Urban Agriculture Conference’s first FFA Speech Competition, helped create West Virginia’s first agriculture resource guide and spearheaded an effort to create a new agriculture CTE program for a Kanawha County high school.
In his spare time Brannon hosts the quasi-satirical podcast, Mothman in the Bible Belt, on the Appalachian experience.
Preservation Alliance of West Virginia
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
I serve directly with PAWV managing the Rodney Collins book project, an endeavor to publish an encyclopedia of notable West Virginia architects from the 19th and early 20th centuries. My service includes following up on past research, obtaining permission to use images in the manuscript, and copyediting.
In my previous AmeriCorps term, I was the Collections Manager at the Pendleton County Historical Museum. I helped a team preserve and catalogue artifacts in a 1000+ item collection.
Before serving with PAWV, I lived in Japan for seven years working in education, university administration, and corporate communications. Outside of my service, I make videos about Japanese culture to post on my YouTube channel and I try to paint (not very well).
In my previous AmeriCorps term, I was the Collections Manager at the Pendleton County Historical Museum. I helped a team preserve and catalogue artifacts in a 1000+ item collection.
Before serving with PAWV, I lived in Japan for seven years working in education, university administration, and corporate communications. Outside of my service, I make videos about Japanese culture to post on my YouTube channel and I try to paint (not very well).
Friends of Wheeling
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
West Virginia Association of Museums
2022-2023 Service Term
The Clio Foundation
2020-21 & 2021-2022 Service Terms
2022-2023 Service Term
The Clio Foundation
2020-21 & 2021-2022 Service Terms
Kathleen (Katie) Thompson is serving as a Preserve West Virginia AmeriCorps service member working with the West Virginia Association of Museums. She previously served two terms with the Clio Foundation. She earned her PhD in Nineteenth Century/Civil War America from West Virginia University, and also holds a M.A. from WVU and a B.A. from Siena College.
She currently teaches history at several colleges and universities, led tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, was a seasonal interpreter at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for several years, and is the co-editor of Civil Discourse, a blog on the long Civil War.
Her research is on mental trauma and coping among Union soldiers and she is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled War on the Mind. In addition to history, Katie loves knitting and crafting and is happy to be using those skills in her AmeriCorps civic service project.
She currently teaches history at several colleges and universities, led tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, was a seasonal interpreter at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for several years, and is the co-editor of Civil Discourse, a blog on the long Civil War.
Her research is on mental trauma and coping among Union soldiers and she is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled War on the Mind. In addition to history, Katie loves knitting and crafting and is happy to be using those skills in her AmeriCorps civic service project.
Lee Maddex
West Virginia University RHC
2021-2022 & 2022-2023 Service Terms
2021-2022 & 2022-2023 Service Terms
Lee Maddex is serving his second AmeriCorps term at the Morgantown History Museum. His work at the museum involves locating and collaborating the museum’s accessions inventories and then cataloging those accessions in a comprehensive searchable database. Lee also works closely with museum staff and occasionally works with patrons visiting the museum.
Lee is a two time graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics and a Masters of Arts in Public History. In his career, Lee has principally worked in the area of historic preservation and cultural resources management. Most recently, before his AmeriCorps Service, he was Library Technician at the West Virginia and Regional History Center. Additionally, he served a term on a Pittsburgh area historic preservation commission and has been a history consultant on various projects related to historic preservation and the history of technology.
Lee is a two time graduate of West Virginia University with a Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics and a Masters of Arts in Public History. In his career, Lee has principally worked in the area of historic preservation and cultural resources management. Most recently, before his AmeriCorps Service, he was Library Technician at the West Virginia and Regional History Center. Additionally, he served a term on a Pittsburgh area historic preservation commission and has been a history consultant on various projects related to historic preservation and the history of technology.
Marsha Viglianco
Clarksburg History Museum
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
Taylor County Historical Society
2022-2023 Service Term
2022-2023 Service Term
Sharon David
Friends of Wheeling & Preservation Alliance of West Virginia
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
PAWV AmeriCorps Member Sharon David is working to revitalize Ohio County's orphan cemeteries through her work with the Friends of Wheeling Orphan Cemeteries Project.
Sharon is new to the state of West Virginia but not to AmeriCorps. Following a stint in the Navy, she spent a year interning with the White House National Service team to launch AmeriCorps, then joined the newly formed Corporation for National Service to help establish the National Civilian Conservation Corps. When considering how to spend her retirement years, Sharon decided to combine her passion for transforming herself, places, and things with service. She will graduate from the Building Preservation and Restoration Program at Belmont College in 2023 and plans to help communities preserve their heritage and create economic opportunities by finding new uses for their special buildings and places.
Sharon is new to the state of West Virginia but not to AmeriCorps. Following a stint in the Navy, she spent a year interning with the White House National Service team to launch AmeriCorps, then joined the newly formed Corporation for National Service to help establish the National Civilian Conservation Corps. When considering how to spend her retirement years, Sharon decided to combine her passion for transforming herself, places, and things with service. She will graduate from the Building Preservation and Restoration Program at Belmont College in 2023 and plans to help communities preserve their heritage and create economic opportunities by finding new uses for their special buildings and places.
Trent Dayton
Marshall County Historical Society, Cockayne Farmstead
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
My name is Trent and I am a Preserve WV Americorps member serving with the Marshall County Historical Society and Cockayne Farmstead. I am from Wheeling WV and currently live in Moundsville WV. After I graduated from Wheeling Park High School in 2019, I got a job at the Former West Virginia Penitentiary where over my time there, I was trained on just about everything. I also created a TikTok account for it and that gained over 50,000 followers, accumulated over half a million likes, and received millions of views.
I already had a love for history prior to working there, but my love turned into a passion. I would like to, one day, manage and operate a historic site. I am so thrilled to be working with Americorps in order to gain more experience in a field I care so much about.
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
My name is Trent and I am a Preserve WV Americorps member serving with the Marshall County Historical Society and Cockayne Farmstead. I am from Wheeling WV and currently live in Moundsville WV. After I graduated from Wheeling Park High School in 2019, I got a job at the Former West Virginia Penitentiary where over my time there, I was trained on just about everything. I also created a TikTok account for it and that gained over 50,000 followers, accumulated over half a million likes, and received millions of views.
I already had a love for history prior to working there, but my love turned into a passion. I would like to, one day, manage and operate a historic site. I am so thrilled to be working with Americorps in order to gain more experience in a field I care so much about.
Vanessa Pena
West Virginia Humanities Council
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
2022-2023, 2023-2024 Service Terms
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Vanessa is a Preserve WV AmeriCorps Member and a resident of Charleston, serving at the West Virginia Humanities Council for her second term. She is assisting the State Folklorist, Jennie Williams, with transcriptions, fieldwork, and archival preparation for the West Virginia Folklife Program. Vanessa graduated from West Virginia State University in 2023 with a degree in Communications with an emphasis in visual media and a minor in Studio Art.
During her time in college, Vanessa worked for the chemistry department as a lab assistant for 2 years, then worked for the office of student affairs and enrollment management as a graphic designer and social media manager for a year and a half. In her spare time, Vanessa creates traditional art using a variety of mediums as well as cooking new foods. |
