Faculty
Kathryn Miller Haines is the Associate Director of the Center for American Music, part of the Archives & Special Collections Department of the University of Pittsburgh Library System. She has served as part of the project team and faculty for five successful past NEH Summer Institutes for Teachers and was co-director, with Suzi Bloom, on the previous Landmarks workshops.
Suzi Bloom is the Director of Education for Rivers of Steel. She has a BS in Environmental Science/Ecology from Juniata College and an MS in Parks and Resource management. She has 20 years of experience with environmental education.
Jeffrey Tripodi is a Social Studies teacher and Coordinator of Gifted Education at Blackhawk High School. He has received the Roy A. Hunt Foundation Award for Commitment to Education in the Arts and Humanities and has extensive experience presenting teacher training workshops with an emphasis on the use of technology in the classroom.
Michael Thompson is the Executive Assistant at the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS). He is responsible for coordinating special events and conferences and serves as the event liaison to internal departments and other Pitt departments, vendors, and any other partner organizations that are providing services or involved in the program.
Ryan Henderson has a Masters in Public History from Duquesne University. While finishing school in 2015, Ryan began working for Rivers of Steel as a part-time site manager at the Carrie Furnaces, and has since become Interpretive Specialist and Grant writer for the organization.
Zachary Brodt is the University Archivist at the University of Pittsburgh Library System’s Archives & Special Collections and author of the forthcoming book From the Steel City to the White City: Western Pennsylvania and the World’s Columbian Exposition. He has previously served as the archivist for the Henry Clay Frick Business Papers and has contributed to the understanding and memory of the Homestead Steel Strike through presentations, articles, and essays.
Jerry Fitzgibbon is a volunteer with Rivers of Steel and leads docent tours of the Bost Building (the labor headquarters in 1892) and the Pump House (site of the Battle). He has made many presentations about The Battle to various libraries and historical societies and has done programs for high school and college classes at the Pump House.
Visiting Scholars
Tammy Hepps 
is a historian of the Jewish experience in Western Pennsylvania. She combines in-depth historical research with technology and genealogy to reconstruct stories from the past in an engaging way.
Ken Kobus 
is a retired engineer for the LTV Steel Corporation who worked in the steel industry for over 40 years. He is also the author of City of Steel: How Pittsburgh Became the World's Steelmaking Capital During the Carnegie Era (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
Renáta Kamenárová 
is the Director of Slovak Studies Program, the only university program in North America where students can take Slovak language and culture classes and opt to receive a Minor in Slovak Studies. She also teaches Slovak language at the Summer Language Institute at the University of Pittsburgh.
Amanda Dunyak Gillen 
Amanda Dunyak Gillen is the Director of Learning & Visitor Experience at The Frick Pittsburgh. She has a B.A. in History from Allegheny College, received a certificate in Elementary Education, and has an M.A. in Public History from Duquesne University. At the Frick she oversees all adult, student and family programs related to the museum’s diverse collection.. She is also an adjunct instructor at Duquesne University’s McAnulty College & Graduate School of Liberal Arts History.
Mark Clayton Southers 
is an award-winning playwright, photographer, scenic designer, theatrical producer and stage director and the founder and producing artistic director of the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.
Joel Woller is an interdisciplinary educator. At Carlow University, where he has been an Assistant Professor of History, he co-founded a minor is Labor and Working-Class Studies and teaches a course on the Homestead Strike. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is writing a dissertation on the Homestead Strike in collective memory. He has long been active in the Battle Of Homestead Foundation.
