Meet Our Dedicated Team
Welcome to the Amistad Research Center! Our dedicated staff is crucial to our mission of preserving and sharing Black history. Their expertise and passion drive our efforts to maintain and expand our invaluable collections.
Our Experts At Your Service
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville, established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American museum. She also previously served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum. Her career as a museum professional includes an expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. In 2021, Hambrick established the consulting firm, 2PRESERVE that provided cultural resource guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations. She is a past President of the National Association of African American Museums.
In her role as a Public Historian, Kathe possesses a passion for collecting, preserving, and interpreting history for diverse audiences. She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River and she led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish. Throughout her career, Kathe has curated over 100 exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz; African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine; Creole Du Monde; and The Square Collection that featured the original artworks of Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery. Local, national, and international media, including the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times have interviewed her.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books: Juke Joint Men; Oh Say Can You See: Flag Paintings of Malaika Favorite; Our Roots Run Deep: The History of the River Road African American Museum; and a curriculum guide entitled Freedoms’ Journey: Understanding the Underground Railroad in South Louisiana. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach. Kathe served as an adjunct professor at Southern University in New Orleans where she received a master’s degree in Museums Studies.
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Paula Allen received her Master of Fine Arts from Southern Illinois University. Prior to coming to Amistad, she served for twelve years as a program director for a nationally acclaimed education program called The Breakthrough Collaborative and taught at several local institutions including Xavier University of Louisiana, Southern University at New Orleans, and Delgado Community College. She is a past recipient of the Smithsonian's Awards for Museum Leadership and was recognized, along with Independent School program directors, by the Klingenstein Foundation for her work with middle-school-to college preparatory programs. Paula Allen's most recent research was published in the International Review of African American Art (co-authored with Rebecca Hankins) and in The African American National Biography, a joint project of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and Oxford University Press. As Curator of Fine Art and African Collections at the Amistad Research Center, Paula Allen is responsible for the management, development, and of ARC's fine arts and African art collection as well as the development of public programs, including curatorial research, advocacy, fundraising, and reference assistance.
Brenda Flora focuses on Amistad Research Center’s audiovisual collections. She holds a Master’s degree in Film Archiving from the University of East Anglia and is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. She has completed several grant-funded projects for the Center, including projects funded by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission, the National Park Service, and the Council on Library and Information Resources. Prior to joining the team at Amistad in 2010, she worked at the University of New Orleans Earl K. Long Library, the Tulane Libraries Recovery Project, and the British University Film and Video Council’s Newsfilm Online project at ITN.
Anna LeBlanc-Mulder was born and raised in New Orleans. She graduated from Smith College in Northampton, MA, with majors in History and French Studies. She recently completed her Master’s in Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University. Anna has worked in library services most of her career, including the New Orleans Public Library and most recently as an intern for the Library of Congress. She also received a graduate certificate in Archival Studies.
Jennifer is dedicated to the accessibility and preservation of history. Digital preservation offers an alternative method of archiving and accessing important primary source materials. Jennifer holds degrees in Fine Art from the University of Kansas, Art History at Portland State University, and the University of Bologna, Italy. She has also worked on digital projects at the Bartlesville Area History Museum, The Louisiana State Museum as Digital Assets Manager of the Colonial Documents Project, and the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
Lisa C. Moore, a New Orleans native, received her MLIS from the Catholic University of America in 2019. She is also a graduate of Louisiana State University (B.S., business administration), Georgia State University (B.A., print journalism) and the University of Texas at Austin (MA, anthropology/African diaspora studies). Prior to arriving at the Amistad Research Center, Moore was board president of Fire & Ink, a national advocacy organization for LGBTQ writers of African descent. In addition to her work as an archivist, Moore is editor/publisher of RedBone Press.
Prior to working at Amistad, Rainey formerly served as the operations manager at Ashé Cultural Arts.
She attended Mount Carmel Academy High School and matriculated at Southern University in Baton Rouge. She pursued a career as a premier flight attendant for American Airlines and relished global travel for fifteen years. Exposure to other global cultures allowed her to recognize the deficiencies in her hometown of New Orleans. Valenetta resumed her education to obtain a paralegal certification at Tulane University Extended Learning.
Ms. Rainey is a cultural advocate, emulating her grandfather's legacy of safeguarding New Orleans' heritage. Ms. Rainey asserts that understanding one's origins is essential for comprehending one's future direction. She joined the inaugural African American female Carnival Krewe and undertook several leadership roles inside the group.
Ms. Rainey is currently pursuing a degree in project management at Colorado Tech University.
Felicia Denice Render received her Master of Science in Library and Information Science degree from the University of North Texas with a concentration in Digital Content Management. Prior to joining the Amistad Research Center, she was the Visual Culture Archivist for the Atlanta History Center, where she managed visual collections by processing over 100 photograph collections, cataloging thousands of images, and completing a grant project to digitize vintage color film footage of Atlanta. Felicia has worked as Project Archivist (Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA); Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Fellow (The HistoryMakers, Chicago, IL); Digital Initiatives Resident Librarian (Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta, GA); and Library Associate (Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta, GA). As her work experience indicates, Felicia is passionate about preserving different aspects of culture and the ways technology is used to manage cultural heritage resources.
Laura J. Thomson has been an archivist for 20 years, specializing in the arrangement, description, and preservation of archives and manuscripts collections, and managed the Manuscripts Processing Department at Amistad for over ten years. She has a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina, a Master’s in Fine Arts in the Book Arts from the University of Alabama, and a certificate in Preservation Management from Rutgers University. She is a bookbinder and fine press printer in her spare time, teaching and working out of an artist studio in Florida.
Jaime Bergeron was born and raised in the New Orleans area. She graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a Major in Visual Arts, and she recently received her Masters in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University. Prior to her arrival at the Amistad Research Center, she served as a Library Specialist at the Ernest J. Gaines Center in Lafayette, Louisiana. She has experience in both library and archival environments, and is passionate about understanding and preserving histories in the archives.
Lisa Dahlke received her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University, along with graduate certificates in Archival Studies and Records and Information Management. She is a Certified Records Analyst (CRA), accredited by the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM). Before joining Amistad, Lisa worked at the New Orleans Public Library. Most recently, she was an intern in the records management department at the Saint Louis Zoo.
Genesis Ranel, a native of Zachary, Louisiana, holds a Master of Arts in History and Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Alabama, and a Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in American Studies from Millsaps College. Previously an IMLS Museum Empowered Fellow at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, she curated exhibitions, public programs, and conducted a collections audit. She also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, developing virtual tours and educational materials.
New Orleans native, Elijah Smith graduated from Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, with a degree in Museum and Heritage Studies. Throughout their academic journey, they gained hands-on experience through internships at the Maier Museum of Art and the National World War II Museum. With a passion for history and preservation, Elijah is dedicated to sharing the stories that shape our world through engaging exhibits and educational programs.