Mary Jo moved to Washington, DC intending to stay two years and ended up living in the Washington area permanently. Living in the District fired her already deep interest in American history and after a successful career in journalism and public relations she earned a master’s degree in American history from George Mason University in 2003. Since then she has devoted herself to making American history accessible to popular audience using the resources of the District to tell America’s story. Her career as a historian includes stints as an editor at The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project and director of the oral history program at the Women in Military Service to America Memorial Foundation. She has also published numerous popular articles on African-American history, women’s history, the Civil War and World War II.

Heather is an art historian specializing in Classical Greek and Roman art, with secondary fields in Early Christian and 19th-century art. She has a Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, and an M.A. from the University of Maryland in College Park. As an active member of the Aphrodisias Excavations team in Turkey from 2004 to 2010, she wrote her dissertation on sarcophagi and funerary practices in the Eastern Roman empire. She held a fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006-2007, and has traveled extensively in Europe for study and research. After teaching at the Pratt Art Institute and Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, she has returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C. and currently teaches at the Catholic University of America and Marymount University. As a native of the Washington, D.C. area, Heather is well-acquainted with local museums, historic houses, and galleries, and has a special interest in the Classical heritage of the city, which is inspired by political philosophy and expressed in architecture and artistic symbolism.

Kristen has lived in the Washington DC region for over a decade. She earned her master's of Architecture and master's of Science in Sustainable design from The Catholic University of America and is now a lecturer at the university. While pursuing her graduate degree, she worked as a teacher and director for Experiences in Architecture for high school students and teaching assistant for the woodshop. Kristen is a licensed architect and designer who works on a variety of different project types in the area. She consistently attends lectures and discussions revolving around the field of architecture within Washington DC to keep up with the current affairs and ideals. She has worked as an architectural designer for an adaptive reuse firm and supports many groups that are involved in forward-thinking strategies and approaches. Kristen has studied across many different countries such as Spain, France, and Ireland but always finds herself back near this city she loves. She has the ability to compare what she has seen, experienced, and learned and wants to use this knowledge to develop innovative solutions of her own in the built world and share this knowledge with others.