welcome!

Author/ Founder/Scientist/Curator/Historian/Mom

“Everyone has a history. What you do with it is up to you. Some repeat it. Some learn from it. The really special ones use it to help others.”
— John Mark Green

Atomic Hope LLC was born at the intersection of place, purpose, and possibility.

As a historian and preservation professional, my work has long centered on how history is documented, considered, and carried forward, especially in places shaped by innovation, industry, and federal decision-making. When my family moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, America’s Secret City, that professional lens was met with something deeply personal.

Like many families new to Oak Ridge, we began by exploring its museums, historic sites, and stories, drawn to its extraordinary legacy as a global center of science, innovation, and world-changing discovery. I expected curiosity and inspiration from my children as we explored.

Instead, I witnessed disconnection and confusion from my STEM-loving children.

They expressed that in many of the places we visited, they rarely saw people who looked like them reflected in the story of the city. When they did, the narratives focused almost entirely on struggle, rarely on ingenuity, contribution, or possibility. Rather than feeling connected to the place they now called home, they felt distanced from it.

That moment clarified something I had already sensed through my professional work.

As a preservation professional, I understood the systems, the laws, the compliance processes, and the frameworks that guide how history is evaluated and considered. As a mother and community member, I felt a deeper responsibility to ensure that place-based history fosters connection, belonging, and understanding, not silence or separation.

So I set out to bridge the gap.

Not just for my children, but for other children who may have felt the same, and for organizations navigating preservation responsibly, educators seeking meaningful ways to teach history, and families and communities longing to see themselves reflected in the American story.

Today, my work lives at the crossroads of heritage stewardship and storytelling, guiding institutions through the red tape of preservation compliance while rolling out the red carpet through immersive historical interpretation, books, tours, and experiences that bring history to life. From the boardroom to the classroom, I help people connect story to place.

My mission is to uncover overlooked stories, elevate forgotten voices, and reconnect them to the places where history actually happened so people of all ages, especially children, can see themselves reflected in our shared American story. When individuals connect to both story and place, history becomes more than information. It becomes something they carry forward with purpose.