A Kentuckian by birth and a Lexingtonian by choice, Dr. Amanda L. Higgins is the executive director of the Lexington History Museum. Mandy earned her Ph.D. in US History with a concentration on mid-20th century social movements from the University of Kentucky in 2013. She has secured nearly 1.5 million dollars in grants focused on equity, inclusion, and trauma-informed practices in cultural spaces and works to dismantle hierarchies of exclusion in the museum field. In August 2023, after being closed to the public for more than a decade, Mandy and her team opened the reimagined Lexington History Museum at the Thomas Hunt Morgan House in downtown Lexington. If she’s not trying to make museums better, you can find Mandy enjoying live music, sipping patio drinks, and cheering for the Wildcats.