Speaker & Historian Biographies

American Battlefield Trust Event
February 9 - 11, 2024

Mobile , AL

Speakers & Historians

Garry Adelman

 Garry Adelman is a graduate of Michigan State University and the Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and is the award-winning author, co-author, or editor of 20 books and 50 Civil War articles. He is the vice president of the Center for Civil War Photography and has been a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg for 25 years. He has conceived and drafted the text for wayside exhibits at ten battlefields, has given thousands of battlefield tours at more than 60 sites and has lectured at hundreds of locations across the country including the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. He has appeared as a speaker on the BBC, C-Span, Pennsylvania Cable Network, American Heroes Channel, and on HISTORY where he was a chief consultant and talking head on the Emmy Award-winning show Gettysburg (2011) and Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color (2015).  He works full-time as Chief Historian at the American Battlefield Trust.
 

Sarah Kay Bierle 

Sarah Kay Bierle graduated from Thomas Edison State University with a BA in History, works in the Education Department at American Battlefield Trust, and occasionally writes for Emerging Civil War. She has spent years exploring ways to share quality historical research in ways that will inform and inspire modern audiences, including school presentations, writing, and speaking engagements. Sarah has published three historical fiction books and her first nonfiction book, Call Out The Cadets: The Battle of New Market, is part of the Emerging Civil War Series.
 

Paul Brueske

Paul Bruseke is a lifelong resident of the Gulf Coast, Brueske became fascinated with local Civil War era history, in particular the 1865 campaign for Mobile. His first book, "The Last Siege," is a result of many years of research on the Mobile Campaign. He founded the Mobile Area Civil War Round Table and regularly gives talks on Gulf Coast Civil War related topics. Brueske is currently the Head Track & Field Coach at the University of South Alabama, where he is also pursuing a graduate degree in history. Brueske is a member of the Friends of Historic Blakeley State Park, Mobile Historical Society, and the History Museum of Mobile.
 

Mike Bunn

Mike Bunn is a historian and author who has worked with several cultural heritage organizations in the Southeast including the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, and the Columbus (Georgia) Museum. He currently serves as Director of Historic Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. He is author or co-author of several books, including Fort Stoddert: American Sentinel on the Mobile River, 1799-1814; Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era (winner of the NSDAR Excellence in American History Award); Old Southwest to Old South; Mississippi 1798-1840; The Assault on Fort Blakeley: “The Thunder and Lightning of Battle”; Early Alabama: An Illustrated Guide to the Formative Years, 1798-1826; Alabama From Territory to Statehood: An Alabama Heritage Bicentennial Collection; Well Worth Stopping to See: Antebellum Columbus, Georgia Through the Eyes of Travelers; Civil War Eufaula; Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812; and Images of America: The Lower Chattahoochee River. He has forthcoming books on the history of the Tensaw River (UA Press) and antebellum Mobile (UGA Press). Mike is editor of Muscogiana, the journal of the Muscogee County (Georgia) Genealogical Society. He is also Chair of the Baldwin County Historic Development Commission, vice president of the Mobile Area Civil War Roundtable, and a member of the Board of Advisors for the University of South Alabama’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program. Mike earned his undergraduate degree at Faulkner University and two masters degrees at the University of Alabama. Mike and his wife Tonya live in Daphne, Alabama with their daughter Zoey.
 

Dan Davis

Dan Davis is a Senior Education Manager at the American Battlefield Trust. He is a native of Fredericksburg, VA where his love for the Civil War began on childhood trips to local battlefields. Dan is a graduate of Longwood University with a bachelor’s degree in Public History. Dan has worked as a Ranger/Historian at Appomattox Court House National Historical Site and the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War.
 

David Duncan 

David Duncan is the president of the American Battlefield Trust. He spent more than 20 years as the organization’s primary fundraiser and Chief Development Officer before taking the helm in October 2020 with the retirement of longtime president O. James Lighthizer. Duncan was born in Roanoke, Virginia, and grew up in nearby Salem in a home full of history books, precipitating his passion for history. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from James Madison University, where he majored in communications. Working with dedicated and generous trustees, individual donors, and foundations, Duncan has led the way in raising nearly $240 million in private donations since joining the nonprofit. These donations have been used to help preserve more than 58,000 acres of battlefield land at more than 160 battlefields of the American Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil War, including Gettysburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Princeton, and virtually all of the country’s most historic battlegrounds. Relying on the personal touch as the bedrock of his fundraising strategy, Duncan has traveled tens of thousands of miles and crisscrossed the country to personally meet Trust supporters and potential donors, sitting down with them face-to-face and talking about the organization’s mission, its goals, its successes, and the threats to battlefield preservation.


Dr. Jennifer Knutson 

Biography is coming soon. 


Dr. Chris Mackowski

Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emerging Civil War. He is the series editor of the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series, published by Savas Beatie, and the “Engaging the Civil War” Series, published in partnership with Southern Illinois University Press. Chris is a professor of journalism and mass communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia. He has also worked as a historian for the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, where he gives tours at four major Civil War battlefields (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania), as well as at the building where Stonewall Jackson died. Chris has authored or co-authored a dozen books on the Civil War, and his articles have appeared in all the major Civil War magazines.


Kristopher White 

Kristopher White is the deputy director of education at the American Battlefield Trust. White is a graduate of Norwich University with an M.A. in Military History and California University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in History. He served as a ranger-historian for nearly five years at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. White is the co-founder and former chief historian of Emerging Civil War and co-creator of the Engaging the Civil War Series, a partnership between Southern Illinois University Press and Emerging Civil War. An award-winning speaker, producer, and editor, White has authored, co-authored, or edited nearly two dozen books, and he frequently leads tours in the United States and abroad.