Our Mission: We are dedicated to expanding awareness and preservation of Arizona women's history.
Meet Our Board
Melanie Sturgeon, Ph.D.
President
Melanie Sturgeon, PhD, retired as the State Archivist and Director of the Arizona State Archives in 2016. Melanie has served as President of the Southwest Oral History Association, the Coordinating Committee for History in Arizona, the Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists, the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame, and as Deputy Coordinator of the Arizona Historical Records Advisory Board. She also served as a Board member of the Council of State Archivists and the National Association of Government Records Archivists and Administrators.
Carrie Gustavson, MA, Certificate of Museum Studies
Treasurer
Carrie Gustavson grew up learning about other cultures and people around the world through the United Nations IAEA program. Her first career as an archaeologist, she received her advanced degrees from UCLA/University of California, Berkeley and the University of Toronto. 25 years ago, Carrie returned to the United States and completed her degree in Museum Studies at Arizona State University. As the Director of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum, Carrie led the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum to state and national recognition for museum excellence and award-winning interactive exhibitory. Under Carrie’s leadership, the Museum became the first rural affiliate nationwide of the Smithsonian Institution’s Affiliation Program. In 2016, the Museum was nominated for the 2017 National Medal for Museum Service.
Mary Melcher, Ph.D.
Secretary
Mary Melcher, Ph.D. retired in 2017 after a long career in public history. She has worked for the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe and the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, as well as acting as a contractor for numerous public history projects. She also was the historian for the Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail and is the author of Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Choice in Twentieth-Century Arizona, published by the University of Arizona Press, 2012.
Duku Anokye, Ph.D.
Member
Duku Anokye is an Associate Professor of Africana Language, Literature, and Culture, Associate Director of the School of Humanity Arts and Cultural Studies (ShArCS), and Director of New College International Initiatives, office of Interdisciplinary Global Learning and Engagement (IGLE) at Arizona State University. A sociolinguist, her research focuses on African Diaspora orality and literacy practices, folklore, discourse analysis, and oral history with a specialization in Ghanaian culture, religion, storytelling, and dance. She is the co-recipient of the Arizona Humanities 2021 Outstanding Speaker Award.
Laurie Boone
Member
Laurie Boone is currently the Special Collections Librarian for the Yuma County Library District. Laurie received her undergraduate degree in International Affairs from Florida State University and a Master’s degree of Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida.
A dedicated public librarian, Laurie is keen to promote and share Arizona women’s history with local communities.
Gloria Cuádraz, Ph.D.
Member
Gloria Cuádraz is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities Arts and Cultural Studies at Arizona State University. Her research interests include Chicana/os and higher education, theory, and methods of oral history, Arizona Mexican labor history, feminist methods and testimonio. She is co-editor of Mexican Workers and the Making of Arizona (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018) and co-editor of Claiming Home, Shaping Community: Testimonios de los Valles (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2017). In 2013, she was awarded the Dan Shilling Public Humanities Scholar of the Year Award by the Arizona Humanities Council. From 2014-2017, she was co-lead editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social.
Lora Key, Ph.D.
Member
Lora Key, PhD., is a curator at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tucson and the Associate Editor of the Journal of Arizona History. Her focus and research in Mexican-American history has been crucial in developing new exhibits at the museum. Her dissertation, “We’re All Americans Now: How Mexican American Identity, Culture, and Gender Forged Civil Rights in World War II and Beyond” looks at Mexican American activism during and after World War II in three cities: Los Angeles, El Paso, and Tucson. Lora is the recipient of the Western History Association’s Sara Jackson Award given to minority graduate students whose focus in on the American West. She also received the Prelinger Award from
the Coordinating Council for Women.
Catherine L. May, Ph.D.
Member
Catherine L. May, Research Historian. Catherine is retired from a 23-year career at Salt River Project where she worked as an archivist, researcher, and writer. She has served multiple history and history-related organizations over the years, particularly in the State of Arizona. She is currently completing her dissertation on the work of faith communities in the Mexico/USA border region. The title of her dissertation is "Mutual Mission: The Presbyterian Church in the México – USA Border Region"
Christine Marin, Ph.D.
Member
Christine Marin, Professor Emeritus. Archivist-Historian, Arizona State University. Dr. Marin is the founder of the Chicano/a Research Collection and Archives at the Hayden Library in Tempe, Arizona. At ASU, she taught the history of Mexican Americans and Mexican American women and Latinas. Her recent publications include three books of Latina biographies and stories called Latina Trailblazers: Stories of Courage, Hope and Determination, published by the Raul Castro Institute at Phoenix College. She has published multiple articles in anthologies, and state and national journals, and is the recipient of the 2021 Arizona Humanities Friend of the Humanities Award. Dr. Marin is a native of Globe, Arizona.
Anna Ochoa O’Leary, Ph.D.
Member
Anna Ochoa O’Leary, Ph.D. is Professor and Head of the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. She is a two-time Fulbright Scholar for research on repatriated migrant women (2007) and students who have returned to Mexico as a result of US deportation policies (2020). She is a Tucson Public Voices Thought Leader Fellowship (2014-2015), and recipient of the YMCA Women on the Move award (2012), and the Raúl H. Castro Institute “Latina Trailblazer” award (2011). Her current research and teaching interests focus on the culture, history and urban politics of Mexican Americans, gender, education, and immigration.
Erika Pérez, Ph.D.
Member
Erika Pérez, PhD, currently holds the following positions at the University of Arizona: Associate Professor of History, Affiliated Faculty of Gender and Women's Studies, and Editorial Advisor of the Women in the West Series (University of Oklahoma Press). Her research interests are American West/Spanish Borderlands, Gender/Sexuality, Colonial America, Nineteenth-century US, and Indigenous North America.
Octaviana Trujillo, Ph.D.
Member
Octaviana Valenzuela Trujillo, PhD, is a Professor and Founding Chair of the Applied Indigenous Studies Department at the University of Northern Arizona. Her primary academic focus is the role of multilingual, multicultural language and literacy development in minority and indigenous community development efforts. In the early 1990’s she served as the first chairwoman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. Most recently, she has worked with the United Nations and US Department of State Fulbright program with Indigenous Peoples human rights and leadership
development.
Joan-Faye Meacham
Emeritus
Joan-Faye Meacham Chaired and Co-Chaired the National Suffrage Statue Campaign to successfully return the 1921 statue of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott from the basement of the Capitol building to the Capitol Rotunda. She served as President of the National Suffrage 75th Anniversary three day commemoration in Washington DC. She has co-founded the National Women’s History Museum, National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites, The Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail and the Arizona Women’s History Alliance where she served as Vice President and is now an Emeritus board member.
