Kelly Pratt has 5 years of experience in the preservation and care of historic African American cemeteries including descendant community collaboration, GIS mapping, and project management. As the current Training Coordinator for The Campaign for Historic Trades, a program of Preservation Maryland, Kelly trains community members in cemetery preservation and coordinates training activities nationwide for the historic trades. Kelly also has experience with Phase I and II archaeology, artifact analysis, and lab methods. In an effort to become a well-rounded cultural resources manager, Kelly has completed internships in archive management and museums. Additionally, she has cross-cultural experience living, studying, and working internationally. Kelly spent one summer in Japan, two summers in France, and five years in China. During all these experiences, she studied the language, culture, and religion of the local people, with the exception of France where she also studied preservation practices, city planning, and cemeteries. Kelly has a B.A. in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington. There, she minored in Urban Studies. Currently, she is pursuing her M.P.S. degree in Cultural and Heritage Resource Management from the University of Maryland.

Research Interests:

Public Archaeology

Transnational Archaeology

Mortuary Archaeology

Cemetery Preservation

Community Empowered Preservation

Climate Change in Historic Preservation

Climate-driven Migration

Critical Heritage Studies

Erasure

Heritage and Risk