an historian of American women and expert in girls’ & women’s leadership development.
Emily serves as the Assistant Director of Strategic Programs and Education at the National Women’s History Museum, where she leads and oversees a range of innovative educational programs and strategic initiatives while collaborating with external partners to create impactful programs and exhibitions. She is also a lecturer at The Ohio State University, a facilitator for girls’ and women’s leadership development seminars, and a consultant for Lean In Girls.
She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, where she studied modern American social movements. Her dissertation, which received the Jane and Cecil Lyman Prize for Best Ph.D. Dissertation and was recently featured by the Smithsonian’s flagship podcast, Sidedoor, explores the intersection of feminism, ageism, and advocacy through the lives of Maggie Kuhn and Tish Sommers.
She spent the first ten years of her academic career teaching American History and American Women’s History at the undergraduate and graduate-level, leading professional development on primary-source centered classrooms across the nation, and establishing intergenerational female mentoring and leadership programming for female students and faculty. She is the recipient of several university-wide teaching and mentoring awards.
In 2018, Krichbaum founded Remember The Ladies, an initiative to incorporate more women’s history in American history classrooms, equipping teachers and school districts to provide more representative and inclusive histories. (Because, you can't be what you don't see). Since its inception, she has worked with 50+ school districts around the country.
After leaving the university, she founded and directed a leadership center at an all-girls preschool-12th grade independent school, where she developed programming and curriculum to ensure the next generation of female leaders have the tools to lead themselves and others—from intensive leadership development seminars to courses on personal finance, investing, and branding. She has presented her research on the international stage at the International Coalition of Girls Schools conferences.
She looks forward to her morning runs, the Sunday paper, and the day women comprise (at least) 50% of the legislature. She lives with her husband, their two daughters, and her beloved canine running partner in Columbus, Ohio.
“the speaker was of extraordinary caliber with engaging and infectious energy to not only celebrate these women and their achievements, but to be specifically reminded of the barriers they faced and the way they were remembered.”