Presenter Bios

Leah Davis Witherow is the Archivist of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, a municipally funded museum that documents the history and culture of the Pikes Peak Region. She joined the museum as a graduate intern in 1994 while earning an M.A. in History at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In recent years she has taught courses in Colorado History and Material Culture of Colonial America at UCCS and is currently creating a course on Public History for the fall of 2006. She is a graduate of the Modern Archives Institute at the National Archives, former President of the Society of Rocky Mountain Archivists and has achieved archival certification through the Academy of Certified Archivists. Ms. Witherow is a frequent speaker for archival and museum organizations in addition to serving as a keynote speaker for Purdue University’s Making History Project. Ms. Witherow’s presentation at the 2006 Regional History Symposium, "Marketing the Mountain: Pikes Peak in the Popular Imagination" was among the most appreciated programs and it appears in “To Spare No Pains,” Zebulon Montgomery Pike and His 1806-1807 Southwest Expedition proceedings. Outside of work she enjoys reading, mountain biking, snowboarding, and spending time with her husband Sean their beautiful children Hayes and Brier.