Staff
Executive Director
Kelsey Brow
she/her
Executive Director Kelsey Brow fell in love with King Manor in on her first visit in 2013 and started volunteering. She is beyond honored to now lead this venerable organization. Trained in the study of decorative arts and material culture at the Bard Graduate Center, Brow's academic work focuses on the intersection of consumption and ethics with material culture and the decorative arts. She has given talks at museums, universities, and conferences across the country. She is particularly proud to have spoken at the International Council of Museums conference in Kyoto on the importance of professionalization in small museums in September 2019.
Brow is actively involved in the museum community, though volunteer work with AASLH, the conference committee of the Small Museum Association, and is the Queens Chair of the NYC branch of the Emerging Museum Professionals Network.
Education & Program Coordinator
Abigail Waldron
she/her
After earning her Bachelor of Arts in History from State University of New York at New Paltz (2017), Abigail Waldron attended Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut) for her Master of Arts in American Studies. While at Trinity, she was a Graduate Creative Fellow for the Watkinson Library & College Archives, serving as archivist and curator of the exhibit “Pulp Art of Science Fiction’s Golden Age” (2019-2020). Abigail has worked as a Research Center Associate for the Connecticut Historical Society (2019-2020), intern for the New Paltz Town Historian (2017) and Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (2018), and has led outreach efforts for Holocaust survivors on behalf of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (2022).
Abigail has since published her book Queer Screams: A History of LGBTQ+ Survival Through the Lens of American Horror Films (McFarland & Co., 2022) and is a contributing editorial writer for Horror Press, LLC.
Site Manager
Michael Colon
he/him
Michael Colon, a long-term resident of Jamaica, Queens, started volunteering at King Manor after his first visit in 2016. He interned with the museum in the winter of 2017 and was instrumental in developing King Manor’s 19th-Century Servitude exhibition. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the State University of New York Plattsburgh (2018). As site manager, Michael wears many hats in overseeing the museum's daily operations, including managing special research projects on subjects relating to urban planning and local history; in 2019 his history of transit exhibition Transfer at Jamaica was King Manor’s inaugural exhibition in the new second floor exhibit space. He is currently working on researching the development of a free-black community in Jamaica, Queens, in the early 19th century.
Curatorial Assistant
Hannah Winiker
she/her
Hannah Winiker assists in overseeing King Manor’s collection, and develops exhibitions throughout the year. She has always been obsessed with historic houses, starting from her first visits to Long Island’s Old Bethpage Restoration on field trips in grade school. She feels so blessed to have finally realized her dream of working at a historic house, especially one as unique as King Manor.
Hannah is a graduate of the joint Cooper Hewitt/Parsons School of Design, History of Design and Curatorial Studies Masters program in New York City. There she specialized in nineteenth-century British decorative arts and material culture, with a minor study in twentieth-century popular culture. She is a scholarship recipient for the Victorian Society London Summer School (2018), was a Historic New Orleans Collection Summer Fellow (2017), and was the Education Intern at The Jewish Museum (2016).
Visitor Services Associate
Sajeda Banu
she/her
Sajeda has lived in Jamaica, NY since 2006 after moving from Wichita, Kansas. For over a decade, she worked as a Pharmacy Technician at Pharmerica. Since leaving that position in 2021, she has been working as a Visitor Services Associate at King Manor where she translates information pertaining to the museum to Bangla and works in the garden.
executive assistant
Massiel Martinez
she/her
Massiel has lived in Jamaica, Queens her entire life! She graduated from Brooklyn College in December 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and in Anthropology & Archaeology. During her studies she focused heavily on social history and cultural anthropology, which led her to visit King Manor for the first time in September 2019, where she immediately began volunteering. After graduating college she spent two years working as a 3K Lead Teacher and UPK Teaching Assistant until she started working at King Manor.
Caretaker
Roy Fox
he/him
A King Manor fixture for over three decades, Roy “the” Fox is more than simply our caretaker, he is a passionate Rufus King scholar. Come by on any given afternoon and his bright, impish grin and dynamic personality will welcome you through our doors and into the world of Rufus King. After having retired from over 30 years in radio broadcasting, Mr. Fox now generously donates his time to give free walking tours of Jamaica, Queens and has spoken on the subject of Rufus King’s life and legacy at several venues across New York City and beyond. When he’s not out and about, he’s carrying on the 4000 book tradition of Rufus’ library and diving into the massive collection of reading material he’s amassed in his apartment above the museum.
DIRECTOR OF EMPLOYEE WELFARE & RODENT SECURITY
Mary Alsop King
she/her
Hired in August 2019 as a stray, Mary Alsop King (named for the 19th century lady of the house) loved lying in the sun of King Manor’s porch so much that she decided to sign on full time. Her daily duties include cuddling with staff, reading with Fox, lying in sunbeams, and keeping pesky mice at bay. Mary is also a talented Instagram model (follow us @kingmanormuseum!) and a world-class purring master. Though she typically doesn’t come out to play during open hours, some lucky visitors might catch a glimpse on their tour (especially since she’s very good at escaping the third floor).