J. White – President

J. is a Department of the Army civilian intelligence officer and retired US Army Military Intelligence officer. A sixth-generation US Army officer, she has spent her professional career serving in unconventional warfare and special operations world-wide. She was the first woman student at the German Army’s Infantry School and the first woman to perform a US Army Special Forces mission in combat. Amongst her accomplishments are service in a Special Forces operational detachment as an on-the-ground advisor for Middle Eastern partner military forces in combat; service as an attaché in East Africa during conflict; and as a trainer for Southeast Asian partner military forces. She pioneered the analytical field of information operations in guerrilla warfare and is a recognized authority on the role of the arts, especially Hip Hop, in insurgency and counterinsurgency. She is the founding director of Pallas Athena Ladies Aid Society (PALAS), an “Authentic Civilian” Civil War reenactor unit which is the largest Civil War civilian reenactor unit in the country. She is also a member of the B/97th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry reenactor unit. She is a member of the Company of Military Historians, several organizations focused upon 18th and 19th Century technology, and a number of combat veteran organizations, to include the Special Forces Association. She has served as an advisor for Special Forces history, Cold War intelligence and Civil War medical history to the US Army Military History Institute/Army Heritage and Education Center and the Historian of the US Army Medical Department, and as a member of the board of directors of the only still-standing CSA military receiving hospital. She has special interests in 18th and 19th century open hearth cooking, the role of women herbalists supporting the CSA military medical service, Civil War military apothecaries, the roles of military staffs during the Civil War, Civil War-era information operations, and Civil War-era technology. She led the project to restore and equip the only known surviving original Civil War medicine wagon (mobile apothecary). She has published a number of works related to the Civil War. Her family has strong Civil War connections: she is the proud descendent of USA and CSA combat veterans and nurses, including POWs on both sides; and several existing family properties played prominent roles in a number of battles. She and her husband are active in competitive shooting sports with antique weapons, are avid collectors and users of antique tools, and operate a 19th Century wood-working shop. She lives by the philosophies that “Too much is never enough” and “You can never have too many knives, flashlights and mag tools on your person at one time.”

Rebekah Thomas – Secretary

Rebekah Thomas got her Masters of Science in Education and Secondary Credential from Dominican University in San Rafael, California. With a special interest in American Revolutionary War and Civil War history, she joined the DAR, DUV, ASUVCW and SWCW and is currently the National Patriotic Instructor for ASUVCW. In California, she was a docent for Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery for 22 years; for 20 of those years, she led the Lamplight Living History Tours and wrote scripts for the vignettes. Rebekah created the biannual Dark Side Tours in 2006 which continue today and brings in an average of $13,000.00 for the cemetery each Friday the 13^th. After moving to Paradise (Florida) four years ago, Rebekah is currently creating another cemetery tour for Manasota Cemetery. Her current goal: Finish her book, “Cemetery Lane,” a cookbook. Her final goal: Be an awesome ancestor.

Dr. Rich Jankowski

Richard Jankowski supported military members during his thirty-eight years with the Defense Logistics Agency, working out of Troop Support in Philadelphia. He spent time in Subsistence (food), Clothing & Textiles, and on redesigning/updating the DLA procurement system. He began his studies with a Computer Science/Mathematics degree from Bradley University and an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia). He has served as a volunteer fireman, with a church group, and as a regional alumni coordinator for Bradley. In the Civil War community, he served sixteen years as president of the Old Baldy CWRT, after two years as vice president. In this role, he oversaw the round table winning several New Jersey and national awards. He introduced programs that created a welcoming culture, grew the membership, and expanded the Old Baldy name nationally.  In the last four years, he connected with SWCW and several of its Board members. He recently spent one year on the Board of the Inland Empire CWRT. He served three years on the Board of the CWRT Congress. During the Pandemic, he started and ran the Ambassador Program to connect CWRTs across the nation to share knowledge, experiences, and challenges. From 2010 to 2015 he worked on the New Jersey Sesquicentennial Committee, as part of the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association, to educate the citizens of New Jersey about the state’s role in the War. This included overseeing the publishing of several books, public events such as lectures, commemorations, and displays; and connecting with Civil War organizations in the state. In 2013, he earned a master’s degree in Military History – Civil War from American Military University. He and his family have visited Civil War battlefields, museums, and sites across the nation. He serves as a judge for the regional competition for New Jersey History Day each year. He recently earned a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Stockton University and is expanding his efforts in the nonprofit community. He is designated as an Advanced Certified Nonprofit Professional by the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Volunteer Center of South Jersey. He began and advanced his leadership skills and practice with Alpha Phi Omega [National Co-ed Service Fraternity]. He served in roles at the local, state, and national levels and has done community service for over three decades. He has been active in Omicron Delta Kappa (National Leadership and Service Honor Society). He is also a member of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. He will be working on research on philanthropy and nonprofit leadership.  Along with his wife, Debbie, he is a Ballpark chaser, attending games at Minor League ballparks. To date, he has been to 279 ballparks. The touring allows them to travel to different areas of the country to visit museums, National Parks, historic sites, and natural wonders, meet local people, and try local cuisine. He has also visited 26 of the current Major League ballparks. Recently they have expanded into international travel. When not traveling, they reside in Voorhees, New Jersey, enjoy watching sports, and are the proud parents of two adult children.

Malinda Byrne

Malinda Byrne is a special education teacher by trade and a living historian/reenactor by avocation. Her interest in the Civil War began in 8th grade when she learned about two great, great, great grandfathers who fought in Pennsylvania units and has continued to grow and diversify from there. As a reenactor/ living historian, Malinda enjoys participating in a variety of events. Some events allow her to interact with the public, sharing her knowledge about life during the Civil War. Other events allow her to experience activities that people who lived during the time may have engaged in. And still other events allow her to step back in time and immerse herself in the 1860’s. Recreating 1860’s clothing for both women and children is a particular interest of hers. She has been involved in reenacting and living history since 2001. She has been a member of York Signal Detachment. She is currently a member of Reynold’s Battery Light Artillery and also participates in events with the Steady Habits Travelers and Flint Hill Events. Malinda has spent time as a volunteer historical interpreter at Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, New York, from 2010- 2022. During this time, she enjoyed interpreting hearth cooking, dress making, laundry, children’s games, and sewing as well as more Civil War era related topics including refugee life and boxes sent from home. Malinda worked at Genesee Country Village and Museum as a Movable Museum presenter of 19th Century Fashions and Civil War Era Fashions from September 2013 until March 2020. She also worked there as a camp instructor for two summers running a Girl’s Academy camp, teaching young ladies sewing, crafts, and etiquette.

Nancy Hill

Nancy is a jack-of-all-trades, master of none!  Professionally, she has a background in budgeting, fundraising, membership development, management, inclusion and diversity, and administrative support. A preteen, proto-feminist, her advocation became women’s history.  Civil War history was mother’s milk growing up in Virginia and that too became a lifelong interest.  Nancy is a self-described social historian—not military logistics or events.  Her one addiction is books!  Loves the texture, smell and reading a book. Nancy has attended every SWCW conference from the first one, except for one (which she regrets missing).  Previously, she was on the SWCW Board of Directors and served very briefly as Treasurer.  Nancy enjoys learning from our conferences, seeing old friends and making new ones.

DeAnne Blanton

DeAnne retired from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, after thirty-one years of service as an archivist specializing in 19th century US Army records. Her first book, “They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War,” co-written with Lauren Cook, was published by Louisiana State University in 2002 and by Vintage the following year. She is a founding member of the SWCW, and served as the first President of the organization. She has appeared in nearly a dozen Civil War and women’s history documentaries for cable channels and public broadcasting. She is a graduate of Sweet Briar College, and now makes her home in the Shenandoah Valley.

Maria Carrillo Colato

Maria is Associate Archivist at A.K. Smiley Public Library and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands. She has a Bachelor of Arts in History from California State University, Fullerton and a Master of Arts from the University of California, Riverside in History with an emphasis in Public History. She is currently a doctoral candidate at UC Riverside focusing on California in the Civil War-era. As a graduate student, Maria completed an internship with the National Park Service at Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Dover, Tennessee where she lived in the Surrender House, the site of Simon Bolivar Buckner’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant in 1862. She coauthored Images of America: Early Redlands and Redlands in World War I and has worked in museums and special collections in Southern California since 2006.

Emily Lapisardi

Emily is the editor of Rose Greenhow’s My Imprisonment: An Annotated Edition, which debuted as the highest-ranking new release in Amazon.com’s U. S. Civil War Women’s History category in the spring of 2021.  She has presented first-person portrayals of historical figures in fourteen states and the District of Columbia.  Emily is currently the Director of Musical Activities for the Catholic Chapel of the United States Military Academy (West Point NY), where she directs the West Point Catholic Chapel Choir for services at the Academy and for touring appearances, including the nationally televised funeral liturgy for Medal of Honor recipient Chaplain Emil Kapaun. She has portrayed Civil War spy and diplomat Rose Greenhow at a range of venues, including the International Spy Museum, the Manassas Museum System, Manassas National Battlefield Park, the Lomas Center (Gettysburg PA), Petersburg National Battlefield Park, as well as book launch events with author Ann Blackman for her 2005 biography Wild Rose: Civil War Spy, and for numerous historical societies, reenactments, and round tables. Emily also has extensive experience as a singer, actor, dancer, organist, and pianist.  She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from West Virginia University (where she was named a WVU Foundation Outstanding Senior and received the university’s nomination for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships), a Masters degree in Sacred Music from Duquesne University, and a certificate in Catholic Liturgy from the University of Notre Dame’s STEP program.  She has international performance experience as a singer and ballet dancer, and has also presented at national and international conferences.  As a musicologist, she received the Communal Studies Association’s research fellowship for her work on the hymnody of American communal societies.  Additionally, Emily founded the vocal music program for, demonstrated sericulture for, and served on the board at Old Economy Village, where she was named the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission 2006 Volunteer of the Year.

Patricia “Tish” Richard

Tish has been a history professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2002.  She has loved and been interested in history, in general, since her childhood where she remembers listening to her father’s stories of the attack on Pearl Harbor and his service during WWII. As an undergraduate she worked for the National Park Service as an interpreter at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D. C.  After graduating with her B.A. in history, she volunteered as an historical interpreter at Blist’s Hill Victorian Town, Telford, England.  As a graduate student she worked as a historical interpreter at Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage in Nashville, TN. Her interest in and own research of the Civil War came in graduate school at Marquette University. Her focus is on women’s experiences and participation in the Civil War from the northern perspective.  Her first book, “Busy Hands: Images of the Family in the Northern Civil War Effort” was published by Fordham University Press in 2003. She currently lives in Lakewood, CO with her husband Cliff and her furry friends Rocket and Frankie.

Ashley Sonntag-Bottomley

Ashley has had an interest in the American Civil War era since she was very young. Childhood family trips to Gettysburg inspired a love for museums and living history. Though initially drawn in by the historic fashions, her attention and research quickly shifted to exploring the wartime experiences and roles of women during the Civil War. Since the age of 14, Ashley has been an active participant in the Civil War living history and reenactment community, striving each season to improve her presentations and experiences to be as authentic to the historical documentation of the period as possible. Ashley is a Gettysburg College 2019 graduate with a BA in History and Civil War Era Studies. While attending Gettysburg College, she worked as an intern in the conservation lab of the Special Collections and College Archives to restore antique books, documents, and worked closely with the collections. During this time she also presented interpretive and educational programs at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (NPS) as an intern through the Brian C. Pohanka Internship Program. Throughout her college experience she continued to research and present as a living historian at various historic properties, battlefields, and classroom settings. After her college graduation, she worked at the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation’s Museum and Visitor Center as the Foundation’s Operations Manager and Curator. In that position, she updated many of CCBF’s facilities, including a complete redesign and installation of museum exhibits, digital media/presentation space, and library. Ashley has also been elected to the Winchester-Frederick County Tourism Board, serves as a member of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute’s Advisory Board, and continues to act as a collections, interpretation, and development consultant for historic house museums and similar organizations. Ashley is currently the Executive Director and CEO or Renfrew Museum and Park in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.