Public History Alumna Promoted to Director of Education at the Illinois Holocaust Museum

Kelley Szany (M.A., 2002) has been named Director of Education at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.  Kelley joined the Museum’s staff in 2001 and will now oversee all of the Museum’s education and public programming initiatives.

During her tenure Kelley has been instrumental in the development of the Museum’s broader genocide and human rights mission and vision. She has become recognized as a leading contemporary genocide educator, speaking to audiences not only on the Holocaust but the genocides of Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur, as well as the power of social change and youth activism.

Kelley currently sits on the advisory board of The Unsilence Project, a real-time and internet based program that delivers story-driven learning experiences that inspire young people to ask critical questions about marginalized narratives of atrocity and to develop individual and collective responsibility for human rights at home and around the world. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Educators Institute for Human Rights. Kelley was recently awarded with the 2014 Carl Wilkens Fellowship, a year long program where she will work alongside national leaders to create and strengthen the permanent anti-genocide constituency through both advocacy work and influence of U.S. policy.