Stephen Light Email & Phone Number

Charlottesville, Va, Us

Charlottesville, Va, Us

Lead the following departments: Education and Visitor Programs, Guest Services, Ticketing and Reservations, Transportation.In charge of the development of new exhibitions at the David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center.

Charlottesville, Va, Us

Oversaw the efforts of the following Departments: Education and Visitor Programs, Curatorial, Guest Services, Ticketing and Reservations, Transportation, and Security

Charlottesville, Va, Us

Lead a department of 6 managers and administrators, 13 full-time historical interpreters, 30-35 part-time historical interpreters, and a volunteer corps of 20. Manage a department budget of $1.3 million.Direct hiring and training efforts for onboarding new staff, as well as continuing education opportunities for veteran staff.Efforts to ensure positive visitor experiences have resulted in 95% excellent or very good ratings on Tripadvisor, and 4.7/5 overall rating on Google Reviews.Collaborate on cross-department teams in the development of exhibitions and interpretive planning.

Charlottesville, Va, Us

Managed the historical interpretation and daily operations of Monticello's house tours, serving approximately 430,000 visitors with over 19,700 tours a year.Directly managed 4 full-time interpreters and supervisors, and approximately 20 part-time interpreters.Trained, mentored, and evaluated interpretive staff, and assessed interpretive materials and experiences, in order to meet the Foundation's vision of bringing history forward into national and global dialogues.Created several new tours and experiences for Monticello guests, including the Hemings Family Tour, a dialogue-based house tour that focuses on the perspective and experiences of enslaved people at Monticello, and the historical legacies of slavery in the United States.Worked with my colleagues in the Education and Visitor Programs Department, as well as other Foundation departments, to ensure the smooth operation of up to 100+ tours on any given day.

I researched, prepared and developed interpretive programs for visitors. Examples of topics included guided tours of museum exhibits and the Hall of Fame Gallery, special talks highlighting artifacts from the museum’s collection, and moderated discussions with Hall of Famers and other baseball legends.I presented interpretive programs to visitors at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and hosted interviews with Hall of Famers and other baseball legends. These programs addressed a variety of subjects and themes, and each was adapted to meet the needs and interests of the audience. Group sizes ranged from two or three to several thousand during special event weekends in the summer.I presented education programs to school children both on-site and via live video conference connections. These programs sought to utilize baseball as a lens through which school children can learn about a variety of topics, including math, science, social studies, and character education.I supervised the Hall of Fame’s visitor services department. This department was responsible for communicating with our visitors, assisting them in navigating the museum, informing them about museum events and programs, and answering general questions about the Hall of Fame and baseball history. I oversaw the hiring of full-time and seasonal visitor services staff, managed the scheduling of personnel, and developed training programs and orientation materials for staff.I developed and coordinated a yearly calendar of diverse programs and special events at the museum, working to expand and broaden audience engagement.I represented the education department in meetings with the Hall of Fame’s curatorial team, assisting with the development of themes and major objectives for the museum’s exhibits.I created and managed all aspects of the Hall of Fame’s highly rated podcast series, “Cooperstown Conversations.”

I researched, prepared and developed interpretive programs for students in grades 3-8, addressing a wide spectrum of historical topics related to Columbia County, New York. These programs were designed to correspond with New York State Learning Standards.I presented interpretive programs to students and to the visiting public, catering each presentation to the audience’s age and knowledge level. Group sizes range from one to thirty, and programs took place at our historic sites and in classrooms.I collaborated with educators at five Columbia County historic sites to develop a website and traveling trunk filled with interpretive lessons designed to teach middle school students about historic land use in Columbia County. I developed five (5) lessons for classroom use that fit New York State Learning Standards, and I wrote biographies of historic figures in Columbia County history for the project website. I developed a temporary photo exhibit for the Columbia County Museum, which opened in 2005. The exhibit enabled visitors to learn about ongoing renovations taking place at the 1737 Luykas Van Alen House. I was responsible for researching the renovation process, interviewing project architects, choosing photographs for the exhibit, and writing all labels.I worked with the Historical Society’s Director of Education and an outside consultant to develop a new interpretive plan for the 1737 Luykas Van Alen House. Our plan sought to add depth and personal connections to the interpretive story of this Dutch farm house, and to address topics and groups ignored in previous interpretive plans. In particular, we sought to introduce visitors to stories of Native Americans who inhabited the land before the Van Alen family, and to interpret the lives of the Van Alen family’s slaves.

I worked with unprocessed Civil War manuscript collections, creating finding aids for researchers. I carefully reviewed and organized the contents of each manuscript collection, wrote a biography of each manuscript’s subject, created scope and content notes that would allow researchers to quickly assess a collection’s value to their project, and in some cases I transcribed primary sources. The completion of these finding aids allowed researchers to access previously unavailable materials. My finding aids for the Henry N. Bemis Diaries, the Charles A. Rubright Collection, and the Melancthon E. Washburn Family Papers can still be found on the website for Gettysburg College’s Special Collections.I manned the reference desk in the Special Collections Reading Room, answering questions from researchers and assisting them in accessing archival materials.I developed, researched and installed a temporary exhibit about Civil War prisoner-of-war camps for the Special Collections Reading Room.

Ma, History Museum Studies

Ba, History