Paul Spitzzeri

Paul Spitzzeri is the Assistant Director at the Workman Temple and Family Homestead Museum, where he has worked since 1988. He has a B.A. and M.A. in History from California State University, Fullerton and has written on California history for such publications and anthologies as Southern California Quarterly, Journal of the West, Law in the Western United States, and Icons of the American West. His biography on the Workman and Temple families is an Award of Merit winner from the American Association for State and Local History. Paul has also worked as a volunteer and a consultant for the Historical Society of Southern California, California Council for the Promotion of History, San Bernardino County Museum, and the California State Parks Foundation, among others.

Session: Battle in a Box Canyon: The Lugo Case of 1851
Friday, June 24, 2016 @10:30am

Madame Modjeska: Randi Peshkin

Richard Dana Henry: Bob Minty

When not portraying famous individuals from California's past, Charles Rea works as a realtor in San Juan Capistrano.

Bob Minty is a historian from San Clemente.  He is also part of a reenactment group focused on the 1880s that travels the country performing.  He has presented to groups at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point as well as many other historical gatherings.

Session: Kit Carson and Richard Henry Dana
Friday, June 24, 2016 @3:30pm

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.

Brian Dervin Dillon is a 5^th generation Californian, an archaeologist, and both the son and the father of historians. All three Dillon generations were educated at the University of California, Berkeley.   Brian’s Ph.D. in Maya archaeology was at age 25, the youngest in the history of the department.  A Phi Beta Kappa and Fulbright Fellow, for the past 40+ years he has done archaeology all over California, in every part of Guatemala, and in three other Central American countries. He has published over 130 articles, monographs and books on archaeology and history, and written more than 300 unpublished California contract archaeology studies.  His Camanche story was published in the California Territorial Quarterly in two parts (No. 97, Spring, 2014, and No 98, Summer, 2014) was was awarded a Westerner’s International Coke Wood Prize for Best Journal Article published in 2014.

Session: Camanche: California's Forgotten Ironclad
Saturday, June 25, 2016 @9:00am

Elizabeth Pomeroy

Elizabeth Pomeroy graduated from Stanford University and holds a Ph.D. in English from UCLA. She served on the staff of the Huntington Library for ten years and also worked at the W.M. Keck Foundation in Los Angeles. Living in Pasadena for the past thirty-five years, she has been a Board member of the Pasadena Historical Society, Pasadena Sister Cities Committee, and the Sierra Club, among other groups. She is a writer and contributed a weekly column on historic places entitled “Lost and Found” for the Pasadena Star-News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune. In 2000, she established Many Moons Press, which publishes books on Southern California history and nature.

Historical Research and Publishing
Friday, June 24, 2016 @9:00am

Phil Brigandi

Phil has been researching and writing about Ramona for almost 40 years now, and for many years served as historian and museum curator for the Ramona Pageant in Hemet.  He is the author of two dozen books on the history of Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties.

Session: More Than Just a Love Story: Southern California's Ramona Myth
Friday, June 24, 2016 @2:00pm

David Smith

David is the Superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park. 

Session: The National Parks: Celebrating a Centennial
Saturday, June 25, 2016 @10:30am