Our People

The Students

Noah Jackson Team Leader

A business and marketing major, Noah is the team leader on the Digital PV Panther Project who spearheads our publicity and marketing campaign. He also works with Miguell Caesar and Sheena Wilson to facilitate the archival processing of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection. Noah was also central to our efforts to accession hundreds of analog video tapes of PVAMU sports teams.

Lindsay Boknight Team Leader

A senior majoring in chemistry and minoring in journalism. Lindsay is a team leader on the Digital PV Panther Project. She works with Miguell Caesar and Sheena Wilson to facilitate the archival processing of the Cooperative Extension & Home Demonstration Collection. Stepping aside from her focus on research and science, she shares her profound love and respect for PVAMU with her colleagues and serves as the managerial heart of the project.

Kalayah is pure fire and energy, and her research in probate records at the courthouse in Bellville demonstrates the amazing potential of archival research at PVAMU. She discovered the names of numerous people who lived at Alta Vista, the slave labor camp of Jared Ellison Kirby.

Kalayah Jammer

Kalayah is pure fire and energy, and her research in probate records at the courthouse in Bellville demonstrates the amazing potential of archival research at PVAMU. She discovered the names of numerous people who lived at Alta Vista, the slave labor camp of Jared Ellison Kirby.
His unique passion for history has provided energy and some of the best examples of archival research at the Digital PV Panther Project. His blog post on the Abner Davis Memorial should be required reading for every single person at PVAMU. His curiosity about the 1971 student uprising at PVAMU also inspired a panel on the topic for Black History Month in 2023.

Malachi McMahon

His unique passion for history has provided energy and some of the best examples of archival research at the Digital PV Panther Project. His blog post on the Abner Davis Memorial should be required reading for every single person at PVAMU. His curiosity about the 1971 student uprising at PVAMU also inspired a panel on the topic for Black History Month in 2023.
A junior majoring in architecture, Zynitra's skills in graphic design provided the artistic foundations for a graphic history project on the life and legacy of George Wyatt, an educator, minister, and state representative in 1880s from Hempstead.

Zynitra Durham

A junior majoring in architecture, Zynitra’s skills in graphic design provided the artistic foundations for a graphic history project on the life and legacy of George Wyatt, an educator, minister, and state representative in 1880s from Hempstead.
A junior Biology major and proud member of the Panther PhDs, D'Asia's conscientious and diligent work is featured in many of our social media posts.

D'Asia Johnson

A junior Biology major and proud member of the Panther PhDs, D’Asia’s conscientious and diligent work is featured in many of our social media posts.
A senior Kinesiology Major from Montgomery, Texas and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Hannah's eye for detail and dedication to service is almost unmatched among her peers.

Hannah Harden

A senior Kinesiology Major from Montgomery, Texas and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. Hannah’s eye for detail and dedication to service is almost unmatched among her peers.
A senior Kinesiology Major and a member of the PVAMU Chapter of H.E.R. (Honor, Excellence, and Rarity), Kasedi demonstrates the fact that PV produces productive people.

Kasedi Eason

A senior Kinesiology Major and a member of the PVAMU Chapter of H.E.R. (Honor, Excellence, and Rarity), Kasedi demonstrates the fact that PV produces productive people.
A junior Psychology major with an interest in clinical psychology, Caleb's passion for history, particularly the history of HBCUs, is unparalleled.

Caleb Brookins

A junior Psychology major with an interest in clinical psychology, Caleb’s passion for history, particularly the history of HBCUs, is unparalleled.
A junior Biology major and newest member of the team, Allena's level of excitement about working on the project is high!

Allena Preston

A junior Biology major and newest member of the team, Allena’s level of excitement about working on the project is high!
DeZhane graduated in December 2022. She plans to attend graduate school in 2023.

DeZhane Johnson

DeZhane graduated in December 2022. She plans to attend graduate school in 2023.

The Professors

  • Dr. DeWayne Moore is the Principal Investigator as well as Assistant Professor of U.S. and Public History at PVAMU. He has worked as a digital media strategist and curated digital exhibitions in various platforms, such as Wordpress, ContentDM, and Omeka. As the executive director of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, a Mississippi non-profit dedicated to historic preservation, he has organized several community-engaged research and participatory memorialization projects. He has published peer-reviewed articles in the The Public Historian and UNC-Chapel Hill’s Southern Cultures journal, and he recently published five essays in an edited volume for the University Press of Mississippi. For more information, please visit his website or his bepress page in the John B. Coleman Library.

The Staff

  • Phyllis Earles is a Co-Principal Investigator for the Digital PV Panther Project and the University Archivist at PVAMU. After earning a BA in Art Education at Grambling State University and an MLIS at the University of Michigan, Earles worked as a reference librarian at Houston Community College before accepting her current position as the official steward of PVAMU history in 2001.
  • Miguell Ceasar is the Manager & Lead Archivist at the African American Library at the Gregory School in Houston, TX. He has led and assisted in research, acquisition, preservation, and digitization efforts for state and national archival materials for the past six years. He graduated PVAMU with a BS in Business Administration and a Masters of Community Development. He also holds an MLIS from Texas Woman’s University; he has over 12 years of experience in the library & archival field.
  • Sheena Wilson is the processing archivist at the African American Library at The Gregory School in Houston, Texas. She oversees the acquisition, preservation, processing, and arrangement of its archival collections. A two-time HBCU graduate, she received a BA in History from Grambling State University as well as a Master’s in History from Texas Southern University. She also holds an MLIS from the University of North Texas.
  • Lisa Stafford is the Special Collections Librarian at PVAMU. After earning her BA in English and her MLIS with an endorsement of specialization in Legal Informatics from the University of Texas at Austin, Lisa developed her expertise in legal, corporate, and education environments before bringing more than thirty years of experience “back home” to PVAMU. She is a member of the Society of American Archivists, and she serves as the acting chair of Prairie View, TX Cultural Heritage Commission.
  • Henry Koshy is a Scholarly Communication Librarian at Prairie View A & M University (PVAMU). He holds an MLIS (Master in Library Science) from Texas Women’s University. Though he briefly worked in labor law, Koshy later worked in software and hardware sales and support. Finding his passion as a media specialist, he provides leadership for the Scholarly Communication Program, which includes institutional repository services, copyright and author rights’ education, digital publishing services, open access publication, and open education resources.
  • Musa Olaka is the director of John B. Coleman Library at Prairie View A&M University, and this project is the largest of several collaborative efforts to realize his vision for the university archives. Due to his guidance and vast experience in the realm of external funding, the Digital PV Panther Project acquired the human and other resources needed to disseminate our collections broadly and eliminate the silences about the lived experience of African Americans.
  • Karl Henson is the assistant director of John B. Coleman Library at Prairie View A&M University, and this project developed out of his prior experiences with grants for digital preservation. The success of the Digital PV Panther Project is due in no small part to his guidance and availability on a range of issues about our headquarters.