Leadership Team

William W. Sellers serves as the President of National History Academy and the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area.  He has deep experience in education.  From 2008 to 2013, he served as President of Wentworth Military Academy and College in Lexington, MO, founded in 1880. Sellers received a Bachelor of Arts degree in American History from Harvard University, where he studied under David Herbert Donald and Bernard Bailyn, and a law degree from the University of Missouri. Sellers has served in leadership roles in a broad range of organizations. Among other positions, he has served as President of the Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States; on the Presidential Advisory Committee to Missouri’s Coordinating Board of Higher Education; on the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Missouri; and on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Alumni Association. Sellers has spent the last four years building the National History Academy into the preeminent summer history program in the country.

Michelle Burrelli is the Chief Operating Officer of the National History Academy and the Director of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. Michelle holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of Illinois and a Master’s degree in Museum and Gallery Studies from the University of St Andrews. She has been with The Journey since 2010 and has built relationships with partner historic sites as the Director of Regional and Strategic Partnerships, managed the National Heritage Area program as the Director of the National Heritage Area, and, now as COO, manages all daily operations for the organization. Michelle has been involved in the development and implementation of many educational, tourism and preservation/conservation initiatives, and has played a major role in the foundation and development of the National History Academy.

Katie Smolar taught during the inaugural session of National History Academy in 2018 and began as the Educational Director of High School programs in 2020. Katie graduated from Purdue University West Lafayette where she studied Social Studies Education, Spanish, and Global Studies. She then attended Purdue Northwest and earned her M.A. in History, specializing in United States History. Her career has focused on studying and teaching history through different perspectives by experiencing different cultures and the diverse ways students learn and educators teach around the world. She has taught in Francisco Morazán, Honduras, Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Madrid, Spain where she focused on site-based learning and gained TEFL certification. She taught at Donald E. Gavit High School in Hammond, Indiana where she incorporated the case method into her A.P. U.S. History, Civics, and Economics classes. She helped to implement the online programs for National History Academy in 2020 and joined NHA full-time in 2021 as the Director of Education Programs.

Hashim Davis joined the National History Academy as Assistant Director in 2019. Mr. Davis has over 20 years of experience teaching history and boasts professional experiences including serving in leadership roles within Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, the 100 Black Men of Central Virginia, and the Young, Black and Gifted Academy for the UVA Office of African American Affairs. With a specialization in genocide, he was also honored to serve as a Museum Teacher Fellow for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016-2017. Mr. Davis has fostered and nurtured some of Central Virginia’s best and brightest male students of color, an achievement that reinforces his commitment to students in higher education.

Amy Trenkle is an eighth grade U.S. history teacher, National History Day sponsor, and Model UN advisor, at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C., where she has been teaching since 2012.  She has been a teacher with DC Public Schools since 1999.  Amy taught for National History Academy in 2019, and began as the Educational Director for Middle School programs in 2020. She is a National Board Certified Teacher in early adolescence social studies/history, National Geographic Certified Teacher, has a Master’s in International Education from The George Washington University and currently is writing her thesis for her second Masters, this one, in American History. Amy believes in experiential learning, place based education, and using the museums in her city and across the country to make concrete connections for her students to their history curriculum. She has served on several teacher advisory boards to local museums and organizations, including the National Portrait Gallery, DC Area Educators for Social Justice, the Eisenhower Memorial, Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, the National Museum of American History, the Newseum, the Global Classrooms DC, and the National Building Museum.  This past winter she traveled to Antarctica as a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.  Currently, Amy is serving as an adjunct professor of education at American University. During the summer and on her off time, she enjoys traveling internationally and spending time in National Parks with her husband and their dog, Spud.

Brent D. Glass is Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the world’s largest museum devoted to telling the story of America. A national leader in the preservation, interpretation, and promotion of history, Glass is a public historian who pioneered influential oral history and material culture studies, an author, television presence and international speaker on cultural diplomacy and museum management.