Project Team
Richard Strum
Richard Strum is the Project Director for this Landmarks Workshop. Rich is the Director of Academic Programs at Fort Ticonderoga and has been on staff since 1999; he worked in the Education Department at Shelburne Museum (Vermont) from 1989-99. He earned a Masters in Museum Education at the College of William and Mary, and is the author of two non-fiction books about the American Revolution for young readers. In March 2020 Rich was recognized by the New York State Council for the Social Studies with the New York State Distinguished Service Award for contributions to Social Studies Education throughout New York State and beyond. In 2024 he was elected to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Dr. Matthew Keagle
Dr. Matthew Keagle is Curator for the Fort Ticonderoga Museum. Matt has over 18 years professional and academic experience researching, publishing, and speaking on early modern military history and material culture in Europe and North America. Matthew holds a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a Master’s in American Material Culture from the Winterthur Museum, and a Ph.D. from the Bard Graduate Center in New York.
Tim Potts
Tim Potts is the K-12 Leader for this workshop. Tim has taught Social Studies for 34 years in the Monticello Central School District in New York. He is currently working in the district as a Special Education leave replacement teacher. Tim is a Past President of the New York State Council for the Social Studies and has served as the CFO since 2015. He is an annual presenter at their statewide conference and was the 2005 NYSCSS Middle Level Educator of the Year and received the 2018 NYSCSS Distinguished Service Award. In 2009, Potts was on the faculty of the NEH workshop, “The American Revolution in the Southern Backcountry,” and he was the Teacher Facilitator for Fort Ticonderoga’s 2011, 2014, 2015, & 2016 NEH Landmarks Workshops, 2022 NEH Institute, and for the annual Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute. He is in his second term on the board of the National Social Studies Leaders Association. In 2024, Tim became an adjunct preservice teacher supervisor at SUNY New Paltz.
Visiting Scholars
Todd Braisted
Todd Braisted is an independent researcher and author with over 55 published books and journal articles. He is an advisory council member of RevolutionNJ as well as Bergen County’s 250th commemoration commission and editor-in-chief of The Papers of Lord Rawdon publication for the South Carolina Sestercentennial Commission. Specializing in Loyalist studies, he is a former Honorary Vice President of the United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada, making him uniquely knowledgeable on the shared Revolutionary history of that country and the United States.
Dr. Ricardo Herrera
Dr. Ricardo A. Herrera is Professor of Military History at the School of Advanced Military Studies, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees at Marquette University. He is the author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778, For Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861, and numerous articles and chapters on American military history.
Dr. Maeve Kane
Dr. Maeve Kane is Assistant Professor of History at the University at Albany. She earned her Ph.D. at Cornell University. She is currently writing Shirts Powdered Red: Haudenosaunee Women and the Politics of Atlantic Consumer Civility: 1600-1860. Her scholarship focuses on the Iroquois nation, with a special focus on women’s roles in Iroquois society.
Dr. Holly Mayer
Dr. Holly Mayer is Professor Emerita at Duquesne University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Master’s degree at the University of Oregon, and her Ph.D. at the College of William & Mary. Her latest book is Congress’s Own: A Canadian Regiment, the Continental Army, and American Union, and she also wrote Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution. Both her works will support this Institute.
Dr. Robert F. Smith
Dr. Robert F. Smith is Provost at Valley Forge Military College and the author of Manufacturing Independence, Industrial Innovation in the American Revolution.