Priya Chhaya

I am a historian who grew up outside the nation’s capital, wandered the streets of Colonial Williamsburg as an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary, and gained experience as a graduate student of public history at American University. I believe it is my role to preserve, protect, and interpret the past—by ensuring the stories of underrepresented communities are included and centered as part of the broader American story.

Current Work

Most of my career has been at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Today I direct digital storytelling for both preservation professionals and a broader audience through the National Trust’s two key web properties, Preservation Leadership Forum and SavingPlaces.org. This work includes providing a strategic vision for content development, supporting my team with marketing across audiences through social media and e-mail, and a broader web strategy for Preservation Leadership Forum.

I also currently serve as chair of an internal team focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.

My past work has included developing in person preservation leadership training, and leading conceptualization and development for major conference tracks for the National Trust’s annual meeting, PastForward—focused on technology, women’s history, and inclusion.

As of April 2021 I serve on the board of the National Council on Public History.

Read more about how I do history in this interview I did for Contingent Magazine in March 2020, and learn more about my work centered on multidisciplinary storytelling. 

Additional Public History Work

• Published a review essay in the November 2024 issue of The Public Historian. The article called Moments of Connection: Theatre and History in Two Acts reflects on memory, process, and theatre as public history.

• Commissioned to write a short story called The Dinner Party for the American Historical Association’s Perspectives magazine. The first piece of fiction ever published by the AHA, it was a part of a whole issue focused on fiction and history.

• Served as lead editor of Reconsidering Celebrations at Sites of Enslavement, produced in collaboration with a colleague Elon Cook Lee.

• Led the development of a keynote at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater focusing on Celebrating Women’s History. This panel brought together a musician, historian, and a Menominee elder to have a discussion about how we think about and tell the full American story.

• Produced an audio documentary Women’s Work: Joan Hinton and the Manhattan Project for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

• Interview with Angelo Baca, Documentary Producer and member of the Utah Dine Bikeyah

• Worked with Astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Photographer Roland Miller to produce The Importance of Documenting the International Space Station

• As an active member of the National Council on Public History I started a three year term on the Board of Directors in April 2021. I also volunteered as the co-chair of the 2020 Vision Endowment Campaign and as an affiliate editor of History@Work. In 2018 I co-chaired the program committee for the annual meeting in Las Vegas. (See The Public Speaker for more detail.)

Past Experience

• Interned at the National Park Service working with HABS/HAER/HALS and the National Historic Landmark Program.

• Interned at the British Museum in London, England (2005) where I developed a poster exhibition for the Clore Education Centre. Through this I gained experience in exhibit design, storyboarding, and label writing.

• Interned at the National Museum of American History working in the education department to develop pre-school programming for America on the Move. In a previous internship in what is now the Digital and New Media team I worked on HistoryWired, an online exhibit of objects from across the museum.

A few years ago the American Historical Association interviewed me for their Careers in History column.

Learn more about my work as a Public Historian on LinkedIn.