Moderator
Professor emerita Stacy A. Cordery earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas, where she trained under Prof. Lewis L. Gould as a historian of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Having retired in May from Iowa State University, Cordery continues to serve as president of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era (SHGAPE) and to sit on the Advisory Boards of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the Theodore Roosevelt Center. She is the author of Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire (Viking/Penguin, 2024), Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts (Viking/Penguin, 2012), and Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker (Viking/Penguin, 2007), as well as two books about Theodore Roosevelt. Among her many public talks and podcasts are several C-SPAN lectures and appearances on Smithsonian TV, CNN, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, the Diane Rehm Show, C-SPAN’s First Ladies: Influence & Image, and the History Channel’s 2022 Theodore Roosevelt documentary.

Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a presidential historian and Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Dr. Chervinsky is the author of the award- winning books Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic and The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, and co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. Dr. Chervinsky regularly writes for public audiences in publications like the Washington Post, TIME, USA Today, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and provides commentary and historical context for outlets like CBS News, C-SPAN, Face the Nation, the New York Times, and NPR.

Kathleen Dalton is the author of Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (2002) which the New York Review of Books called the best one- volume biography of TR. She also wrote A Portrait of a School: Coeducation at Andover (1986). She has worked as a history teacher, a university professor, and a public history consultant with the National Park Service and the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

She earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University, and has spoken widely about Theodore Roosevelt on television documentaries. She has served as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historian and has been elected to the Society of American Historians. She is currently working on a book about a diarist, Caroline Astor Drayton Phillips, who was a rebellious debutante but still the famous Mrs. Astor’s favorite granddaughter, Franklin Roosevelt’s cousin and a dear friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and an eyewitness to the inside drama of key presidential administrations.

Candice Millard is the author of four New York Times bestselling books. Her first book, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Book Sense Pick, and a finalist for the Quill Awards. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine & the Murder of a President, won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the PEN Center USA award for Research Nonfiction. It was adapted into a PBS documentary, Murder of a President, and an award-winning Netflix series, Death By Lightning.

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill, was an Indie Next pick, a top ten critics pick by the New York Times and named Amazon’s number one history book of 2016. Millard's most recent book is River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile. She is the recipient of the 2017 BIO Award, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, the Guardian, the Atlantic, and National Geographic.

Patricia O’Toole grew up in a small town in Michigan. Her mother taught elementary school, and her father was a navigator on a Great Lakes freighter. She is the author of three biographies—of Theodore Roosevelt after the White House, of Henry Adams and his friends, and of Woodrow Wilson. She has also written dozens of articles, essays, and reviews for a long list of national newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, Time, and The American Scholar. Her group portrait of Henry Adams and his friends, The Five of Hearts, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award.

For her political commentary, she received several awards, including an Emma from the National Women’s Political Caucus. She was a professor of nonfiction in the MFA program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, where she received the university president’s award for outstanding teaching. She now lives in Camden, Maine, in a farmhouse built when Theodore Roosevelt was running for vice president.

Talmage Boston is a presidential historian and practicing lawyer who lives in Dallas, Texas. He’s the author of Cross-Examining History: A Lawyer Gets Answers from the Experts About Our Presidents (foreword by Ken Burns 2016), and How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents (2024, foreword by John Avlon). He’s also a Contributing Columnist for the Dallas Morning News, who also publishes and promotes his podcast series “Cross-Examining History” (also found on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, and the website of the Washington Independent Review of Books). Talmage has been interviewed on presidential history for news programs on C-SPAN, CNN, and FOXNEWS. He’s also spoken at ten presidential libraries, the National Archives, World Affairs Councils in 15 major cities, and many universities. He’s been named the “History Maker of the Year” by the Dallas Historical Society and ”Outstanding Alumnus” of the University of Texas Law School, To learn more, go to his website www.talmageboston.com

Duane Jundt, born and raised in North Dakota, has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Theodore Roosevelt Association since 2013. Jundt taught for the History Departments at the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern College in Iowa, and he has given presentations on Theodore Roosevelt at museums, libraries, historical sites, and national parks across the country from TR’s presidential retreat in Virginia to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. In 2022 and 2023, he undertook, along with the staff of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, the project to digitize and catalog the entire print run of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. Jundt has published numerous review essays, articles, and book chapters on TR and the American West, Roosevelt’s love of birds, and children’s books. He is a contributor to Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist in the Arena (2020) and City of Hustle: A Sioux Falls Anthology (2022).

Rolf Sletten is an acclaimed author and historian recognized for his extensive research and writing on the history of Medora, North Dakota. Through his detailed accounts, Sletten explores the town’s unique evolution from its frontier roots to its revival under Harold Schafer’s vision, tracing the influential presence of Theodore Roosevelt and other notable figures who shaped the region. His work offers an engaging narrative that connects Medora’s local heritage to the broader story of the American West. A respected voice in historical preservation, Sletten combines scholarly precision with a storyteller’s touch, making the past vivid and accessible to readers. His books and presentations continue to serve as valuable resources for historians, educators, and travelers seeking a deeper understanding of Medora’s enduring legacy and its impact on the cultural and historical landscape of the United States.

Douglas Ellison was born in 1962 and spent his early years on a farm and ranch in Grant County, North Dakota. In 1988 he entered employment with the State Historical Society of North Dakota as Supervisor at Fort Buford Historic Site, transferring the following year to the Chateau de Mores Historic Site at Medora. Doug resigned from the SHSND after he and his wife Mary entered private business at Medora in 1994. They continue to own and operate Western Edge Books and Amble Inn.

Doug wrote and published his first book Sole Survivor in 1983. This story was profiled in the History Channel episode Custer’s Last Man in 2011. Doug has since written eight books, including Theodore Roosevelt And Tales Told As Truth Of His Time In The West, and many articles on western biography and events. He has also served two terms as mayor of Medora.

Joe Wiegand is regarded as the world's foremost Theodore Roosevelt reprisor, performing in all 50 states, internationally, and at the White House. Joe's performances are endorsed by the Congressionally-chartered Theodore Roosevelt Association. In Medora, Joe hosts the Badlands Chautauqua: A Gathering of TRs, where "iron sharpens iron" and TR reprisors get the Little Missouri River in their veins. Joe is a political science graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and a former Graduate Assistant at the Public Opinion Lab, a Division of the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Joe was a Harry S Truman Scholar, a Thomas B. Watson, Jr. Fellow, a former member of the DeKalb County Illinois Board of Commissioners, and a thirty-five year member of Rotary International. Most importantly, in 9th grade, Joe won Canyon High School's Current Events Trivia Bowl.

Kurt Skinner, a Colorado-based historian, is a retired military officer-turned high school social studies teacher. Theodore Roosevelt’s presence looms large in his daily routine as he produces and co-hosts a podcast about Theodore Roosevelt called Talk About Teddy. His current writing projects include researching the post-war stories of Colonel Roosevelt’s bond of veteran brotherhood with his Rough Rider regiment. Kurt also portrays Theodore Roosevelt in historical performances throughout the country, taking audiences of all ages back to a time when Theodore Roosevelt embodied all the promise of the new American century. During the summer, he performs a daily matinee show, “TR: The Strenuous Life,” at the Old Town Hall Theater in Medora, North Dakota. Kurt serves as Advisory Board member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, is a member of the Americanism Council of The American Legion, and is Deputy Director of The American Legion Colorado Boys State program.

Larry Marple, an Ohio native, discovered his lifelong passion for history during a family trip to Gettysburg at the age of five. After more than two decades of participating in Civil War living history, he began researching and portraying Theodore Roosevelt in 2008. Larry and his wife, Julia, have performed as Theodore and Edith Roosevelt from coast to coast, including ten summers in Medora, North Dakota. He has assembled a personal library of more than 300 books on Roosevelt, as well as an extensive collection of Roosevelt political memorabilia. He is a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the American Political Items Collectors. Larry retired in 2024 after 34 years of teaching elementary and middle school. He and Julia recently relocated to Lansing, Michigan, to be closer to family. In January 2024, Larry joined his longtime friend and fellow Roosevelt reprisor, Kurt Skinner, as co-host of the Talk About Teddy podcast. The Marples maintain a website at www.TRoosevelt1904.com.