Dawn Bilobran is Principal of 313 Historic Preservation based in Detroit, Michigan. She has over a decade of experience collaborating with private, nonprofit, and government stakeholders seeking to rehabilitate historic assets and maximize development incentives. Her work involves creating project-specific rehabilitation and adaptive reuse strategies, administering federal and state historic tax credits and managing large-scale construction operations. Additionally, she provides comprehensive architectural history services including building research and National Register of Historic Places nominations.

Ms. Bilobran's projects consist of Michigan’s most iconic buildings including the Detroit Masonic Temple, Michigan State Capitol, Fisher Building, Nickels Arcade and DTE Energy Conners Creek Power Plant as well as small-scale development and community partnerships. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Belle Isle Conservancy supporting the stewardship of the nation’s largest urban island park. Previous board appointments include the Michigan Historic Preservation Network (2014-2020) and Preservation Detroit (2013-2020).

“My coursework at IU, particularly ‘History of the American Home,’ fed my thirst for knowledge about place and our built environment. We are immensely lucky to have such a visually stunning and architecturally inspiring campus in Bloomington. Indiana encouraged me to ask questions, which I continue to do in my career at 313 Historic Preservation. Why is this here? What is important to us to celebrate and preserve? Asking questions and solving problems centered around historic architecture, materials and neighborhood development is something I am lucky to continue to do each day.” 

Charlene J. Fletcher is the Curatorial Director at Conner Prairie and the Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Research Associate in Slavery and Justice at Brown University. Prior to attending IU, Charlene led a domestic violence/sexual assault program as well as a large reentry initiative in New York City, assisting women and men in their transition from incarceration to society and also served as a lecturer of Criminal Justice at LaGuardia Community College and an adjunct lecturer in Global and Historical Studies at Butler University.

Charlene’s research and forthcoming book explores the experiences of confined African-American women in Kentucky from Reconstruction to the Progressive Era, specifically illuminating the lives of confined Black women by examining places other than carceral locales as arenas of confinement, including mental health institutions and domestic spaces. She seeks to explore how these women both defied and defined confinement through their incarceration, interactions with public, social, and political entities of the period, as well as how they challenged ideas of race and femininity.

Charlene’s work is motivated by her personal and professional experiences — particularly her work with individuals and families impacted by domestic violence and incarceration — and these experiences continue to fuel her passion for her work today.

“As Curatorial Director, I’m responsible for conducting all historical research for the museum. One of my central responsibilities is to curate Promised Land as Proving Ground, the museum’s first exhibition that focuses on African American history. I also serve as the consulting historian for The Oldest Profession Podcast, sharing sex worker histories with a wider audience. 

History should be accessible to everyone and I was afforded the opportunity to explore the ways to do that. Curating an exhibit requires creating digestible content for public audiences and my work at the American Historical Review gave me experience in copy editing, podcast production, and the digital humanities that have prepared me for my current role as curatorial director. Graduate school also helped me develop analytical skills and how to put them to use beyond primary source material. When I arrived at Conner Prairie I was the only historian on site, but my graduate training helped me to identify gaps in the institutional research process and I developed a work plan and entire department to ensure the museum has a solid research agenda.

It’s important for emerging historians to follow their passions and use those analytical skills to find new and innovative ways to share their work with the world. I love research, sharing stories, and creating safe spaces for learning opportunities and my position makes it all possible!”

Nicholas Hunot, Senior Real Estate Manager, Renew Indianapolis

“Since graduating from IU with my Ph.D. in History, I have worked in the nonprofit sector. I first work as a writer and researcher for a bipartisan political research organization that helped to provide research for major news outlets. After several years, I switched industries and began working in community development as a program manager for Renew Indianapolis, the land bank for the City of Indianapolis. Since joining Renew, we have undergone a merger with an Indy-based Community Development Corp (a non-profit development organization) and a Community Development Financial Institution. Under the new organization, I act as the Senior Real Estate Manager, overseeing all city government land bank transactions, both residential and commercial. The goal is to return abandon and blighted structures and land in Indianapolis into livable and usable properties again, returning them to the tax rolls. Since 2017, we have sold and rehabilitated over 800 properties with $71M in total investment in community redevelopment. 

In my job, I oversee a lot of moving parts, coordinate multiple projects with multiple deadlines, as well as speak before city boards, commissions, and councils, making presentations and coordinating projects. I also do a lot of grant writing for both private and public funding. The skillsets that I learned and developed while earning my Ph.D. have been essential in my work. My ability to communicate effectively both in writing and speaking, doing in-depth research, crafting persuasive arguments, understanding complex issues and processes, as well as coordinating large-scale projects have helped me make the land bank what it is today, and I have my Ph.D. to thank for that.”