Kordell Keyandre Hammond (2019)

While a graduate student at OHMA, Kordell Keyandre (KK) Hammond's research explored interactional socio-historical linguistics and contemporary North-American discourse analysis. His OHMA fieldwork and exhibit, A View Through Them: An Americana Issue (2020), spoke with educators of color who interrogated questions of media messages on attitudes of public health, public opinion, public memory and public school education. 

His aural thesis draws from said fieldwork, and guides close-readers through an autobiographical narrative prelude: Reading, writing and listening to his own autobiographical prose as a psychoanalytic medium of self-study. KK's oral history is loosely based on humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers' client centered therapy.

You can connect with Kordell on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/kordellkhammond. To learn more about his definition of doing narrative as medicine, Discourse on Doing: Oral History as Psychohistory (2023), experience his soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/kkhammond.

Monica Liuting (2016)

Monica Liuting comes to OHMA with an MA of English Literature from China University of Geosciences, Beijing. She worked as a volunteer worker in Changzhu Historical and Cultural Ancient Town Program (Shannan, Tibet) as an interviewer and writer after graduation.

Monica came to OHMA with an interest in exploring the construct of the narrative in sociological, literary, and oral historical domains. She was an intern with the Queer Newark Oral History Project in 2016 and is working on her thesis project on Chinese Young Artists in 2017.

Jeffrey Brodsky (2008)

For his thesis, Jeffrey Brodsky conducted more than 60 hours of oral history interviews, in which politicians recount their first political races. Read transcripts and watch video clips in the Washington Post. You can also listen to NPR interview Mr. Brodsky about the project.

Continuing his thesis research on the international front, Mr. Brodsky has interviewed a dozen world leaders about their formative political experiences and campaign memories. Among those Brodsky has interviewed include Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar, President Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Prime Minister Wim Kok of the Netherlands, President Mary Robinson of Ireland, President Jorge Sampaio of Portugal, Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Bondevik, Prime Minister of New Zealand Jenny Shipley, President of Panama Martin Torrijos, President of Colombia Andres Pastrana, and Gerry Adams of Northern Ireland.

In 2012, Chief Executive magazine commissioned Brodsky to interview chief executive officers on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). These CEOs included James Turley of Ernst & Young, Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company, David Novak of Yum Brands, and former Chrysler and Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli.

As an oral historian, Brodsky has conducted a series of extensive interviews with Pulitzer Prize winner Peter Kann, the former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of Dow Jones. He has also recorded oral histories with television news veterans Sam Donaldson of ABC and Bob Schieffer of CBS.

Prior to studying at Columbia, Mr. Brodsky received a BA in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Elyse Blennerhassett (2016)

Elyse Blennerhassett is a freelance audio (radio + podcast) and film producer and sound artist for interactive media and immersive exhibitions. Her work (solo and collaborative) have been published with The BBC World Service + Sundance, The Marshall Project, Brooklyn Deep, The Atlantic, NPR, and The Invisible Institute. She has worked on films and exhibitions that have been been featured at festivals and galleries nationally and internationally. As a freelancer, she collaborates with podcast and multimedia producers, investigative journalists, and filmmakers. Clients include: PEN America, The New York Times R&D Lab, and various NGOs, nonprofit organizations, and academic / arts institutions. She was a UnionDocs Collaborative fellow 2018-2019.

Jonathon Fairhead (2015)

Read Jonathon’s bio here.

Yutong Wang (2016)

Yutong Wang is an international student from Shenzhen, China, who graduated from the Ohio State University in 2015.

Her project this year in OHMA is about recent Chinese students who study in America. By interviewing these students, she hopes to help them tell their stories of studying and living abroad. 

Meghan Valdes (2015)

Meghan Valdes is a New Jersey native, recently graduating summa cum laude from Rutgers University where she obtained her B.A. in history - and discovered her passion for oral history. Working at the Rutgers Oral History Archives, she has conducted interviews with World War II veterans and transcribed interviews for the ACLU Oral History Project, which seeks to document the changes in the American Civil Liberties Union in the post-9/11 landscape. She comes to OHMA straight off of an internship at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, where she served as the memorial exhibition intern for the museum’s In Memoriam exhibition, which honors victims through photographs, biographies, and audio remembrances. Her interests include jazz, travel, diners, and listening to jazz at diners she’s traveled to.

Leonard Cox (2014)

Leonard Cox is a corporate communications professional with 36 years of experience in the field. He is currently the Assistant Vice President of Communications for the Facilities and Campus Operations division of Columbia University in New York City. Prior to joining Columbia, Cox worked as a partner at the Michael Cohen Group, LLC, where he managed the firm’s corporate communications and media entertainment practice areas.

During his 14 years working with Michael Cohen, Cox developed and managed large-scale communication campaigns as well as managed audience development initiatives for the firm’s television clients.  Prior to the Michael Cohen Group, Cox was Director of Corporate Communications at the National Broadcast Company (NBC). In this capacity, Cox managed the network’s internal communication initiatives and directed several public and governmental affairs campaigns. In addition, he served as a producer at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Before moving to New York City in 1987, Cox served as the Assistant Press Secretary to Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor. Cox is passionate about documentary filmmaking. His film, THE KILLER WITHIN, was nominated for an EMMY for best documentary. His documentary, QUESTIONING FAITH, was broadcast on HBO/CINEMAX and was ranked among the top 10 influential films of 2002. His short film, FRIENDS IN DEED, won a TELLY Award. Cox has been nominated for two additional EMMY Awards.

Cox received Purdue's 2004 College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumni Award and the Gold Medal for creativity from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Cox is celebrating his 28th year as a volunteer at the Dwelling Place, a shelter for homeless women located in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. Cox is a past member of the Advisory Board for the Brian Lamb School of Communications at Purdue University. He has served on the Board for Columbia University’s Community Service initiative, is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Dwelling Place, and is a past member of the Auburn Media Project’s Board of Advisors.

Rachel Unkovic (2016)

Rachel Unkovic holds a Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation from SIT Graduate Institute, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Trinity College. She has worked for the International Rescue Committee in the field of humanitarian aid since 2009, based in DR Congo and Iraq, and with extended travel to ten other countries in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Rachel’s research interests include oral history in active conflict areas—oral history as a means to create space for refugees/conflict-affected people to gain more control over their own narrative and the story that is told—and interviewing to capture the effects of humanitarian aid.

Robin Miniter (2016)

Robin Miniter (2016) is a podcast producer at National Geographic.

While at OHMA, Robin gathered oral histories in Hot Springs, North Carolina. From this collection came works including the concept album, "God Forged in Fire & Flood: An Oral History of an Appalachian Geography," "Just Go Ahead and Lay Me Down," an audio-ethnography about folklore and funerary traditions in the Western North Carolinian Mountains, and an on-going community oral history project that is currently being archived with the Madison County Public Library (N.C.) and StoryCorps. She's chased stories from subterranean dance caves in Arkansas to the women's rugby fields of India. She continues to seek stories and spiritual geographies as she goes.

Robin is a Spring 2018 graduate of the Transom Story Workshop in Woods Hole, Ma. She's finally learning how to take care of plants, fix bikes, and find roots in Washington, D.C.