Kayla holds a B.A. in History from the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 2012 and an M.A. in History and Certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, graduating in 2015. During her time at UMass, Kayla served as the Public History Administrative Assistant and interned with James Monroe’s Highland. She was also a founding member of UMass Amherst’s Military Memories: Documenting Veteran Experiences oral history project. Before resuming her graduate studies as a Ph.D. student at William & Mary in the fall of 2019, Kayla worked in various public history settings, and served as the Director of Research and Interpretation at Wethersfield Historical Society located in Wethersfield, Connecticut and the Director of Education at Historic Westville in Columbus, GA. Kayla’s research interests center on questions of gender, race, and ethnicity. Her work focuses on the history of Native/ Indigenous Peoples in 19th and 20th century United States. She is the 2019 recipient of the Dr. William M. Kelso Graduate Fellowship in Early American Studies from William & Mary. Currently, Kayla also serves as a digital apprentice for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture in support of the podcast "Ben Franklin’s World."
