Staff
Audrey Maier, PhD
Public History Director
Audrey Maier is a fifth generation resident of San Bernardino County, growing up in Colton and Loma Linda CA. After studying Art History at the UC, San Diego she received her MA and PhD in History/Public History from UC, Riverside. Her work in the community began shortly after returning to the Inland Empire (I.E.) for graduate school. She was inspired to research her own family’s history as she knew from passed-down stories that the family immigrated to San Bernardino Country from Mexico in 1911. Realizing the gaps in the archives inspired her to create new ones, tapping into community stories, networks, resources, and carefully preserved photographs and ephemera to build out new sources to tell the underrepresented stories of I.E. communities.
Maier has since worked to create alternative community-centered archives, oral history projects, and history exhibitions, working with a number of other Inland Empire cultural organizations to develop K-12 lesson plans, host community festivals and collaborate with local artists on site specific installations.
Previously Maier was a digital and public humanities consultant with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino and she also co directs A People’s History of the I.E. Maier will now work with executive director, Sabrina Gonzalez and the board of directors to advance the mission of the Civil Rights Institute across Riverside and San Bernardino counties.