About the Speakers
Kate C. Lemay
Kate C. Lemay is the Director of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center of the Army War College, the premier archive of the U.S. Army. In 2025, the USAHEC was ranked by Newsweek as a top 10 Best Free Museum in 2025. A Fulbright scholar and a renowned and award-winning author, Dr. Lemay served as a historian and curator at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery prior to joining the Army War College.
An expert in Franco-American memory and World War II, Dr. Lemay serves as a Presidential Counselor to the National World War II Museum and as a series editor for the Study of War, Society and the Military at the University of Nebraska Press. Dr. Lemay earned a dual PhD in American art history and American studies from Indiana University (Bloomington), where she completed an MA in art history. She holds a BA in French and art history from Syracuse University, from where she graduated with the Award of Excellence in French, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa.
Ricardo A. Herrera
Ricardo A. Herrera is Visiting Professor of Military History, U.S. Army War College, and an award-winning historian. He is the author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022), For Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861 (New York: New York University Press, 2015), and numerous articles and essays. Herrera is now completing the tentatively titled book, A Most Uncommon Soldier: The Life, Letters, and Journal of Edward Ashley Bowen Phelps, 1814-1893, an edited collection, to be published by the University Press of Kansas. His next project will examine the 1778 and 1779 campaigns for Savannah.
Herrera is a graduate of Marquette University (Ph.D.) and the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.). He has been a Residential Research Fellow at Mount Vernon. In October 2024, Herrera was elected an honorary member of the Pennsylvania State Society of the Cincinnati. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Before becoming a historian, Herrera spent five years in sales and served three years as an armor and cavalry officer in the U.S. Army.
Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She produces history that speaks to fellow scholars as well as a larger public audience.
Chervinsky is the author of two books, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard University Press, 2020), and her latest one, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic (Oxford Press, 2024). She also co-edited Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture (University of Virginia Press, 2023).
Chervinsky is the creator of the Audible course: The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History. Her research can be found in publications from op-eds to books, speaking on podcasts and other media, and teaching for every kind of audience.
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