Executive Staff
The Adams Presidential Center's executive team brings a wealth of experience and passion to leading this dynamic institution.
Dr. Kurt Graham
President
Dr. Kurt Graham joined the Adams Presidential Center as its inaugural president on October 15, 2024.
Previous to joining the APC, Graham was the Director of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. As director, he oversaw a $30M renovation of the principal museum exhibits and dramatically expanded the Library’s educational and public programming. He has also directed the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, and the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City.
Prior to his work in the public history field, Graham was a member of the history faculty at California State University, San Bernardino, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in American political and legal/constitutional history. He has a Ph.D. in American history from Brown University and a B.A. and an M.A. from Brigham Young University in English and American studies, respectively. He is the author of To Bring Law Home: The Federal Judiciary in Early National Rhode Island (Northern Illinois University Press, 2010).
Kathleen Hussey O'Brien
Vice President
Kathleen Hussey O’Brien is a passionate non-profit marketing and fundraising professional. A strategic mind with unparalleled commercial acumen, O’Brien produces tangible mission-driven outcomes on innovative projects. She excels at facilitating experiential in-person and online programming, cultivating major donors, courting corporate philanthropy, and increasing digital media engagement. O’Brien is a veteran of the events marketing industry, where she produced events around the globe for tech, healthcare, and telecom industries.
Outside of her work at the APC, O’Brien serves on Quincy College’s Business Board and Providence College’s Alumni Committee.
O’Brien grew up in Merrymount, a close-knit neighborhood in Quincy, Massachusetts where she still resides with her four wonderful children, Kelli, Mikaela, Paul, Brendan, and Aussie Mountain Doodle Reggie.
Sadie Troy
Director of Education and Public Programming
Sadie Troy joined the Adams Presidential Center as its Director of Education and Public Programming in June 2025.
Sadie Troy joins the organization with over a decade of museum education experience at numerous presidential history sites. Most recently, she served as the Director of Education at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. Her career began in the Founding Era, leading educational programming at both Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon. She has an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in Video Production from Webster University.
Throughout her career, Troy has excelled at delivering skill based, inquiry-based, and relevancy-based educational programs and supporting classroom materials. Her work has been guided by her belief that a non-profit’s role within society is to help prepare its audience to become active and engage citizens by using its source collections to analyze the past, strengthening personal skills to confront challenges today. To her, the role of the informal education sphere should not just help audiences understand new content, but provide them a safe opportunity to model their critical thinking and civic engagement skills for both classroom and real world application. It is no accident that her career has been centered at institutions that teach the life and legacies of US Presidents and the impact they made on American Democracy.
Mary Ellen Seavey Auriemma
Executive Director of Educating for American Democracy (EAD)
Mary Ellen Seavey Auriemma is the executive director of Educating for American Democracy (EAD), a national initiative working to ensure every student in the U.S. has access to high-quality civic education. With over 20 years of experience, she brings a strong record of building coalitions, broadening access, and delivering impact across K–12, nonprofit, and policy sectors.
Before joining EAD in June 2025, Auriemma served as executive director of state and district partnerships at the College Board, where she led strategy for multi-million-dollar portfolios and partnered with education leaders to expand college readiness, advance state initiatives, and implement programs such as Advanced Placement® and the SAT® Suite of Assessments.
A former high school teacher and curriculum leader in rural Missouri, she launched her district’s first AP® U.S. Government and Politics and AP® U.S. History courses and earned certification in Adolescence/Young Adulthood Social Studies/History from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Villanova University, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and an M.S. in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Francis.
Auriemma is known for her strategic leadership and deep commitment to civic learning as a cornerstone of democracy.