Board Members

José Alamillo
José Alamillo is an historian and author of Making Lemonade Out of Lemons. His research investigates the intersections of race and ethnicity, labor and popular culture. His current research is on baseball among Mexican Americans. Alamillo is the Chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies at California State University Channel Islands.

Adam Bush
Adam Bush is a doctoral student in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. Prior to beginning his graduate training, Adam traveled extensively in the United States researching black cultural production, alternative pedagogy, and the origins of jazz education. Since 2005 Adam has served as the Director of Experiential Education for the MET Schools and the Big Picture Company, where he designs and leads oral history travel programs. Adam also serves on the American Studies Association's K-16 Collaboration Committee as well as Imagining America, an organization that works to bring civic engagement to the forefront of liberal arts curricula.

Bob Drwila
Bob Drwila is an Assistant Editor in postproduction television and film. His work in film includes The Kids Are All Right (2010), American Gangster (2008), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Black Hawk Down (2001), and Gladiator (2000).

Catherine Gudis
Dr. Catherine Gudis teaches at University of California Riverside in its Public History Department. Gudis is the author of Buyways: Billboards, Automobiles, and the American Landscape. Gudis' vast background in Los Angeles public history is evidenced in her work for the Los Angeles Conservancy as well as her many publications.

Michelle Hawley
Dr. Hawley is the Director of the Honors College and Community Engagement at California State University Los Angeles. She is also a Professor of English. Her areas of focus are Victorian literature and multi-cultural children’s literature. She has been a Community Partner with the Studio for Southern California History for two years.

Hillary Jenks
Dr. Hillary Jenks is an Assistant Professor in the Honors Program at Portland State University. Formerly the Managing Editor for The American Quarterly, Hillary Jenks’ research examines the intersections of history, memory, and race within different preservation projects in Little Tokyo. Her work has been featured in The Journal of the West and in the forthcoming anthology Historic Preservation Practice: Reevaluating Cultural Landscapes.

Alexis Moreno
Alexis Moreno is a seasoned activist with roots in Los Angeles' history programming and public policy with experience at the Southern California Library for Social Studies & Research and Occidental College. She is currently a consultant who advises institutions across the Southern California region.

John Murray
Dr. John Murray is an Associate Professor of Writing in the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences at the University of Southern California. He has earned numerous awards for excellence in teaching.

Chamara Russo
Chamara Russo is the Vice President of Marketing for TOWN HALL Los Angeles, a 72 year-old nonpartisan, nonprofit, membership organization whose mission is the open public discussion of the most pressing issues facing the region, nation and world. Prior to coming to TOWN HALL LA, Chamara worked as an internet producer for companies including Deutsch Advertising, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Idealab, and the University of Southern California. While at USC, Chamara was the founding marketing director of EC2, the Annenberg Incubator Project, which was the nation’s first business incubator for internet companies including Net Zero and Tokyo Pop.

George J. Sanchez
Dr. George J. Sanchez is a Professor in the Department of History & the Program in American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. His 1995 book Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945 is the winner of several book prizes including the 1994 Robert G. Athearn Award from the Western History Association, the 1994 Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award from the Immigration History Society, and the 1994 Pacific Coast Branch Book Award.

Linda Vallejo
Linda Vallejo has over twenty-five years experience as a professional grant writer and grant writing instructor. Ms. Vallejo has written proposals for a variety of non-profit organizations, universities, county and city agencies, with interests ranging from the arts, education, environment, health and human services, faith-based, community and economic development. Over the past eight years, she has served as an online grant-writing instructor in over 500 colleges and universities nationwide. Most recently she has served as an advisor to city, county and state representatives seeking alternative and expanded funding. Ms. Vallejo is also a practicing professional artist with national and international exhibits and publications to her credit.