Lisa West Alpert (2026)

Although she didn’t realize it at the time, Lisa’s first connection to oral history came through listening to her grandfather’s stories of growing up in a copper mining town on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Later, while researching the history of the North American barn for a high school project, she interviewed farmers in northwestern Ohio and discovered the irresistible thrill of asking questions that led to unexpected and fascinating answers. Her path has taken many turns since then, leading in 2026 to Columbia’s Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA) program.

Originally from Toledo, Ohio, Lisa went to college in Virginia, then worked in Germany where the stories she heard (many in the dialects of the Black Forest and then Bavaria) further built her love for oral history.  After earning an MBA from Northwestern, Lisaheld leadership positions in book publishing at Random House, Scholastic, and Doubleday, before serving as Finance Director for a Manhattan Borough President campaign and later as Development Director at the Municipal Art Society of New York.

This fall, she will begin her first OHMA course while continuing to serve as Senior Vice President of Development and External Relations at The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where she has worked since 2010. During her tenure, she has helped transform Green-Wood into a multifaceted cultural institution, expanding its offerings to include arts programming, school field trips, environmental education, death education, and a wide range of public programs. (Talk about stories, Green-Wood has over 580,000!) Most recently, she led the capital campaign for the Green-House at Green-Wood, the cemetery’s new visitor and education center, which opened in April 2026.

Lisa has lived on the Upper West Side for many, many years. She and her husband, a novelist and science journalist, have two adult children in Brooklyn and New Orleans.

Sihle Motsa (2026)

Sihle Motsa is an Art Historian and Art practitioner who earned a Master’s in Art History at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has worked as a lecturer, researcher and writer, authoring texts for the Daily Maverick, Artthrob, Atlantica Contemporaries amongst others. She has curated exhibitions that speak to a myriad of themes including black aesthetic enactments, material cultures, ecological vernaculars and women’s artistic practices. She is the 2023 Marie-Solanges Apollon Scholarship holder and part of the DAAD MuseumsLab 2024 cohort and serves as the Co-Strategic advisor for Liberation Alliance Africa. She is a Creative Knowledge Resources Fellow, and her work figures black cultural, aesthetic, artistic, and intellectual traditions as pertinent to the work of comprehending the entangled political and ecological realities. She hopes to continue this work as part of the OHMA graduate programme at Columbia University.

Travis Wolven (2026)

Travis Wolven became connected to oral history work through performance storytelling and teaching language & communication skills. He has been an educator in South Korea, Mongolia, Philippines, and across the United States in Massachusetts, Georgia, and Tennessee. A recent graduate of the Communication & Storytelling Master's Program at East Tennessee State University, his thesis research focused on code-switching between home and academic environments. As a storyteller with the Jonesborough Storytelling Guild, he creates stories that connect myths and legends to current-day lived experiences. As a member of the National Storytelling Network’s (NSN) Strategic Planning Committee, he is an oral historian for NSN's 50th Anniversary Oral History Project. At Columbia, he plans to pursue work that bridges cultural and educational divides.

Marquis D. Gibson (2026)

Marquis D. Gibson is thrilled to be joining the Columbia OHMA family. He is an actor, writer, bookseller, and historical interpreter based in New York City and originally from Durham, NC. Marquis has performed in productions across the country and on Broadway, was selected as one of 10 playwrights for the Say Gay Plays inaugural fundraiser in 2024 and portrays patients and clients in medical and law schools to train future medical and legal practitioners.

Marquis has worked as a bookseller and former children’s book buyer with independent, Black owned and/or queer/leftist bookstores and is currently a 2026-27 mentee with the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America mentorship program in order to archive Black and queer book collections. He works as a historical interpreter with the New York Historical, bringing to life moments of New York history centered on Black and marginalized people’s histories. Marquis’ research interests’ include bridging theatre performance with stories around death and dying as a human experience and death as a practice i.e. funerary rituals, memory preservation; the art of drag storytelling, particularly lip-syncing, to reproduce stories of everyday Black and brown queer people; and book and ephemera collectors as living archives.

Niti Kewalramani (2026)

Niti Kewalramani is a counselor, entrepreneur, and author, though the role she identifies with most is that of a counselor.

She spent over 13 years in executive search and co-founded M.R.I. Worldwide in Dubai, helping launch and build the UAE office of a global recruitment brand. That experience gave her a nuanced understanding of the seemingly different but deeply universal themes of ambition and expectation that shape both professional and personal choices.

Alongside her work in counseling, Niti has long been drawn to storytelling. She has scripted amateur theatre productions, served as associate producer of Why Knot, a documentary that questions the practice of monogamy, and written her debut novel, Ties of Blood, a  social critique that uses the vehicle of crime fiction to explore the changing roles of men, women, families, and marriage in modern India.

At first glance, these roles may seem unrelated. For Niti, however, they are connected by a common thread: an interest in people who live slightly outside the expected social script. She is drawn to stories of individuals whose choices and beliefs  do not fully align with the societies they inhabit.

Through OHMA, Niti hopes to build on her interest in people who are in the minority of thought. She is keen to explore topics such as death and longevity, and present alternative views that challenge societies where such subjects are often treated as fixed and one-dimensional. She is particularly interested in those who hold such views while continuing to live meaningfully within societies that may think differently.

Having lived in the UAE for over 30 years, Niti is also interested in showcasing the layered histories and lived experiences of a country often known internationally for its surface glamour, but rooted in deeper stories of human aspiration and collective resilience.

Aedin Ellis (2026)

Aedin Ellis (they/she) is a queer histories researcher, community archivist and human rightsadvocate based in Queens, New York and is of Jamaican origin.

Their work centers activism and social justice advocacy through queer histories research, working with New York and Jamaica based advocacy groups and event organizers in supporting social services in the LGBTQ community, community empowerment through education and facilitating safe spaces for queer nightlife.

Aedin’s socially engaged art practice is the combination of research, literature and journalism with contemporary art by documenting, archiving and presenting queer anthropological history in artistic projects and initiatives. Art is explored through the components of literature, anthropology and performance. Their practice focuses on art as advocacy, art as activism and the strategy of education as a tool for liberation.

Nile Rondon (2026)

Nile Rondon (he/him) is a Sociologist and Audio Mixer originally from St. Thomas, USVI and raised in Atlanta, GA. As a current resident of Brooklyn, NY, the four train commute to campus will be more than worth it!

The main topic he wants to uncover is how people cope after traumatic events. Groups of interest are survivors of Hurricane Irma, artists with debilitating injuries, and paramedics with mental illness. His goal is to emphasize similarities between groups that typically see their differences first.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Georgia Southern University and an Audio Technology Diploma from the School of Audio Engineering. Since graduating a decade ago, he has done field organizing for battleground elections, worked to fight climate change, and promoted physical wellness. 

Following graduation, Nile intends to produce documentaries to bring light to disenfranchised communities. He finds it vital to spend life making a change for good and he’s grateful the OHMA program will nurture him to achieve that very goal.

Jalan Webb (2026)

Jalan Webb is a proud native Atlantan who received her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Criminal Justice from Georgia State University. Having spent time as an educator across the South at institutions like UNC, DC Charter System and the ACLU, her studies and practice are rooted in expressive advocacy, collectivist policy, and the focalization of Blackness in the diasporic worldview. Her interests as an oral history student include Black linguistics and language preservation, guerilla archiving, and cultural curation.

Silia Dimasi (2026)

Silia Dimasi (she/her) is a religious listener of The Moth, a lover of long walks, and an avid people watcher. Born in Genova, Italy, she moved to the U.S. with her family as a little girl and has since called the New Jersey suburbs her home. In May 2026, Silia completed her bachelor's degree at American University as part of a three-year program in international studies. During her undergrad, Silia published her first piece of research entitled, ‘In Drag, I Am A Healer; ’Post-colonial Evolutions in Queer Acceptance and the Emergence of an ‘un-African’ Identity.” A pivotal first step into narrative work, this project enabled Silia to further explore queerorganizing and storytelling through study abroad in Nairobi, Kenya.

The practice of translating and recounting the human experience has been an art Silia has studied her entire life. For as long as she can remember, Silia has been dancing. She thanks her training in modern dance for teaching her strength and Flamenco for teaching her listening. In tandem with dance, Silia has explored the intersections of storytelling and global politics through poetry. Her pieces “Rotting Oranges,” “The Sunbird Sits Amongst the Violets,” and “Where Worth Lies (Wild Things)” can be found in various D.C.-based publications.

Silia joins the OHMA program eager to learn from current practitioners of oral history. She cannot wait to see what stories this program takes her to!

KK Ottesen (2026)

KK Ottesen is an award-winning storyteller whose powerful, humanizing narratives seek to break down barriers and stereotypes and allow for the discovery and celebration of common good. Ottesen has shared the stories of individual lives from all walks of life, through first-person narratives and photographic portraits, as a regular contributor to The Washington Post Magazine and at other publications, and through her books, Activist: Portraits of Courage; Great Americans: Famous Names, Real People; and the shared book project, When You Hear Me, You Hear Us: Voices on Youth Incarceration, undertaken with the nonprofit Free Minds. Ottesen is currently at work on Whose Streets? Our Streets: January 6, The Local Story, an oral history project funded by the DC Oral History Collaborative.

Aminah Gassama (2026)

Aminah is endlessly curious about the stories people carry, the histories we inherit, and how they shape our understanding of justice and care. Growing up in Atlanta, Ga and with roots across Senegambia, she is inspired by Black feminist schools of thought and how diaspora, identity, and culture inform one another. She enters OHMA with a practice built around the conviction that what counts as educationally significant must be as nuanced as the communities it is meant to serve, and that film, audio, and mixed media do not supplement scholarship, they are the mediums that expand its access and memorialization.

Professionally, Aminah has served as a Communications and Research Intern at Noor, a transnational feminist think-and-do-tank combating fascism and fundamentalism, where she supports the production of multimedia content. She has also served as the Assistant Director on a documentary about freedom of movement with the UndocuBlack Network, conducting interviews with Black immigrants navigating international borders. Currently, she is developing an independent documentary on Black migrant self-preservation in Athens, Greece. Aminah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Critical Theory and Social Justice with a minor in Black Studies from Occidental College. She believes that first-hand testimony and community collaboration is infrastructure for collective repair, and she is excited to deepen that conviction at OHMA.

Livi Greco (2026)

Bozho! Livi Greco is a theatre maker and historian from Philadelphia! Her passion for storytelling stems from hearing her grandfather her tell stories about their Potawatomi heritage around the fire as a child. After all, there is no fourth wall if the audience is in a circle! She received her BA in Theatre and History from The College of William & Mary in Virginia, and has been working to amplify Native voices in theatrical spaces since then.

Ia Shalamberidze (2026)

Ia Shalamberidze is a researcher from Georgia interested in questions of migration, memory, identity, and social change. Her work explores how individual experiences are shaped by broader historical, cultural, and social contexts, with a particular focus on mobility, belonging, and the ways people construct meaning across transitions and change.

Working across interdisciplinary approaches, she is interested in connecting personal narratives with wider social processes and examining how stories, experiences, and forms of knowledge travel across communities and generations.

Ia is attentive to questions of gender, violence, and femicide in contexts of conflict and post-conflict societies. She is a co-author of a forthcoming Routledge publication on femicide during the war in Georgia, based on oral history narratives.

Through OHMA, Ia looks forward to engaging with diverse perspectives on migration and global transformation, strengthening interdisciplinary dialogue, and contributing to collaborative approaches to understanding contemporary social challenges.

Hanna L. Kawamoto (2026)

Hanna L. Kawamoto (they/them/theirs) was never one to stray too far away from the water’s edge. Born in Long Beach, California, they grew up in swimming pools and oceans along the western coast. Their love for the water grew into a passion for competitive swimming and ocean lifeguarding. At seventeen, they started working as an ocean lifeguard for the Long Beach Fire Department’s Marine Safety Division.

It was through their work that they developed a greater appreciation for the job’s versatility and history. They quickly learned that to protect their community, they had to connect with their community. From the stories of lifeguards and the public alike, blossomed their interest in the history of lifeguarding...and the silent struggle of preserving it.

Now finding themselves here on the East Coast, they intend to develop archival and research methodologies to help preserve this occupation.

Their research interest in lifeguarding is heavily inspired by their previous work in early American history. They critically focus on the histories of gender and sexuality, further expanding their knowledge through queer and trans studies. They studied and earned their B.A. and M.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Irvine.

Outside of their studies, they (still) enjoy swimming, reading comics, and listening to music.

Simone Moise (2026)

Simone Moise (they/he)  is a writer, researcher, and academic born and raised in the greater Boston area, with a Bachelors in History from Boston University. Their research interests have ranged from night life culture during the fall of the Soviet Union; techno music and racial self determination in post industrial Detroit; and most recently, the role of neocolonial liberalism in urban planning and city building in suppressing communities of color. With professional experience in museums, non-profits, film and literature, Simone utilizes a drastically cross disciplinary approach in academic and professional opportunities. In their free time, they enjoy cooking, dancing, and vintage leather restoration. As a multi-generational New England resident, they love exploring themes of family, gentrification, harm-reduction, and class in local communities.

Kristina Mullenix (2026)

Kristina Mullenix is a public historian from Alabama with a deep love for storytelling and weaving together aspects of oral history with genealogy, history, and community archiving. She is particularly drawn to social justice issues and recovering silences within Deep South history. As someone who listens deeply to better understand herself and the world around her, Kristina uses her projects to not only document and preserve, but to search for the truths that come through metaphor and mythic narratives within the communities she researches. 

She holds a BA in History from Mount Mary University and an MLIS with specialty in Archives Management from Indiana University. She received the 2023 Cauthen Fellowship from the Alabama Folklife Association for a collaborative oral history project related to labor history. Previously, she held positions within historical archives and special collections libraries. She teaches online courses in genealogy, community archiving, oral history, and preservation. Kristina’s work has been published in Tributaries, a journal of the Alabama Folklife Association, and in Alabama Heritage Magazine. She has collaborated on community archiving projects, and digital humanities initiatives. 

As a believer in the power of oral history to diversify collections and histories, Kristina strives to contribute to the field through telling more stories that help us understand and make better sense of our world, honoring what is both truthful and factual in ourselves, our lineages, our current society, and the dreams we wish to carry forward for future generations to come.

Caroline Wells (2026)

Caroline Wells is a proud seventh-generation Texan and a sixth-generation Tylerite. She completed her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at Baylor University, studying Theatre Design & Technology with a Secondary Major in History and Honors through the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. Caroline has experience researching the thematic design of American zoos, serving as Production Manager on collaborative data visualization projects, and even pursuing student research while working on a live archeological site. In developing her passion for blending disciplines, she strives to continue her work in research and design by bringing thorough multisensory, multidisciplinary explorations to audiences.

A.V. Wayans (2025)

A.V. Wayans is a New York native and Brooklyn-based visual artist, anthropologist, and oral historian whose work bridges the disciplines of illustration, ethnographic writing, and griot tradition. Rooted in observation, her hand-drawn imagery uses contour lines to create form and texture, offering a nuanced lens of the world around her. Often paired with narrative text, A.V.’s work integrates ethnographic methods and interview-style reflections to center the voices and experiences of her narrators.

Her practice foregrounds the challenges of her community, highlighting socio-economic disparity, class, gender, race, faith, and health. Through this interdisciplinary approach, she invites viewers to join her in spaces of empathy, dialogue, and deep cultural reflection, aiming to foster community through shared stories and the arts. 

Having obtained her M.A in Oral History from Columbia University, A.V’s thesis, “When You’re Hurting | When You’re Healing”, is an extensive body of work that showcases the stories of four Black women in NYC in 2016. Documenting their oral histories from 2020 to 2026, A.V unpacks how hurting and healing are not absent from one another. The thesis aims to encourage integrational conversation amongst Black women to dismantle the unhealthy practice of silencing in her community. 

A.V is currently using her background in arts education to create a curriculum that combines visual arts practice and reflective writing with somatic stretching. The purpose of this workshop is to give Black women the opportunity to experience art, reflect on their relationship with their bodies, and engage with healing practices through a physical practice. 

Sophia Blake (2024)

Sophia Blake is a writer, actor, and musician based in New York City. She is originally from Salem, MA and spent four years in Illinois earning her BA in Theatre and History from Northwestern University, before moving to New York to pursue theatre and music. Her thesis work at OHMA centered on the day jobs of artists in New York and the lives that they are able to build around them. Storytelling is at the root of all that she does and she is passionate about finding new ways to understand and communicate facets of the human experience.

Isabella Love (2025)

Isabella is an oral historian, photojournalist, and writer hailing from the controversial beast that is the state of Florida. She completed an undergraduate degree in History at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. During her time at the University of Central Florida, she worked at multiple Veteran-based nonprofits, participating in both archival and oral history projects. She first worked with the VA-sponsored Veterans Legacy Program, where she worked in archival research to preserve the history of fallen soldiers buried in Florida cemeteries. From there, she discovered a love of oral history working with the Veterans History Project, interviewing Central Florida Veterans of U.S. Wars to record in the Library of Congress.