Tim Roberts is the new deputy director for Facilities and Interpretation at New Mexico Historic Sites. Courtesy/NMDCA
Kristine Navarro-McElhaney is the new deputy director for Operations and Special Initiatives. Courtesy/NMDCA NMHS News:
SANTA FE ― New Mexico Historic Sites have named two new deputy directors to assist in oversight of the State’s eight Historic Sites.
Promoted from within the Historic Sites’ staff, Tim Roberts was named deputy director for Facilities and Interpretation.
“Now that we are fully staffed with two skilled professionals positioned as deputy directors, New Mexico’s Historic Sites will see direct benefit in our fiscal and facilities management,” said Executive Director Patrick Moore of New Mexico Historic Sites. “Tim Roberts is well-versed on the challenges of managing facilities at our eight diverse sites.
Roberts hails originally from the state of Florida but has been working as a professional historian in the Southwest for more than five years. Roberts earned his BA in History and MA in Historic Preservation from the University of West Florida.
Following tenures at public institutions including West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc., he moved to the private sector where he served as a project manager for Historical Research Associates, one of the oldest and most respected cultural resource management firms in the country. It was during his time at HRA that Roberts began working in the southwest, specifically New Mexico. He returned to the public sector in 2016 when he accepted a position with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and took over management of Lincoln and Fort Stanton historic sites before moving into his role as deputy director for Facilities and Interpretation.
Navarro-McElhaney has more than 20 years’ experience in fiscal management with experience overseeing and implementing historically significant projects in public history with emphasis on oral history programs and initiatives.
“And, after an extensive search, we found Kristine Navarro- McElhaney’s credentials and extensive experience in organizational and financial administration of public historic archives ideal qualifications for the New Mexico Historic Sites deputy position,” Moore said.
Navarro-McElhaney has comprehensive knowledge of organizational and financial administration of centers of higher education and public history based nonprofit professional service organizations including executive oversight.
Before joining New Mexico Historic Sites, Navarro-McElhaney was a research administrator for the School of History, Philosophy, & Religious Studies at Arizona State University where she was responsible for development and oversight of collaborative and innovative humanities research and projects, interdisciplinary scholarship, and external community collaboration with nonprofits, museums and libraries, school districts and historical associations. She also served as interim executive director of the Oral History Association (OHA) and serves as their treasurer.
For more than 16 years, Navarro-McElhaney also served as the executive director of the Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she worked with diverse organizations and government entities including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for the Humanities and others on nationally significant projects and exhibits, including the Bracero History Archive, the single largest collection of bracero oral histories in existence.
