Friends of Historic Huntley Award History and Art History

David Armstrong is a third-year PhD student and a Graduate Research Assistant for the Center for Mason Legacies. He currently works as a high school history teacher in Fairfax County, VA. David received his bachelor's degree in history from the College of Charleston (2007) and his master's degree in history from George Mason University (2021). His research focuses on early American history, with a particular emphasis on the Mason family of Northern Virginia and the people they enslaved. He is the creator of the digital project, “Not Satisfied with the Provisions Made for Her”: Elizabeth Mary Ann Barnes Hooe, the Mason Family, and the Transfer of Property in Early Virginia." 
 

Odessa Lamborn is a master’s student in their first year studying public U.S. history with a focus in public memory of pre-Civil War America. Their family is originally from Pennsylvania, but they have lived in Virginia for much of their life. They are fascinated with how contemporary Americans continue to be shaped by early American events and choose to engage in said events.  Lamborn has plans to work in both public history spaces and produce their own digital and published work. Their motivation is to make history come to life for the public as it is for students of history and help to foster a deeper understanding of the complexity of the past.