Mary Louise Continin Gordon

My long career incuides: workshop leader, speaker, author of biography, family history, oral historybooks, media, innovation, and leadership projects

Historical Writer/researcher. Independent Scholar

Dr. Mary Lousie Contini Gordon, AKA Mary Contini Gordon. Her Education: UCLA, Ed Psych; MA, Kent State and Brooklyn College, CUNY, Theater and TV, Her experience directly involving oral history practices includes: teaching graduate research in the California State University system, writing-producing-directing-hosting documentaries, mounting a museum art show of a soldier's art interspersed with his WWII letters, hosting TV talk shows, creating and using narrative data management systems, writing books that integrated multiple oral history interviews including for Family Oral History Across the World published by Routledge in the Oral History Series ( copyright, 2024) based on 50 recorded interviews with over 40 people from 5 continents. She has two other published books written under contract (a biography and a family history) both heavily dependent on many oral histories. She has done research on the effect of two-way TV dialog vs no integration with the audience and in AI at UCLA for educational purposes. Her narrative data management process is hosted on the Antioch College Oral History Website and her oral history research has been discussed on radio and TV interview shows. As a corporate executive for two tech companies, she has overseen and conducted interviews and other research, overseen development of workshops, think tank exercises, and spoken at many corporate conferences. She presents regularly at OH associations and for museums, libraries, and genealogy organizations. She is grateful for the interview time so many people have given her over the years.

Experience

My background includes over 40 years with oral history or interview related work and narrative data management in TV and other media, corporate research which included interviewing, and as an oral historian for three books: a biography, a family history, and a book in the Routledge oral history series about the use of oral history worldwide in family histories. My education includes an Ed.D. from UCLA in ed psych with a media emphasis and an MA in theater and TV production. Subsequently I produced several TV series funded by the Bank of America, a series about museums for the NYC PBS station, and hosted a community talk show in the early days of cable TV in California. My dissertation: a controlled study indicating effective practices in two-way video distance learning. My corporate career involved being executive director of a Fortune 500 corporate university, developing high level management leadership programs, technical leadership programs, problem solving workshops, and facilitating innovation concept development work, overseeing a research division that included interviewing and analyzing narrative data. All of this is relevant to oral history work and to the development of an organization such as OHA.

Services

Planning and/or conducting a project that involves oral history interviews. Writing a book or media program that involves oral history interviews and/or as research as part of the program. Presentations that include or are based on oral histories. Setting up a narrative data management system. Preparing for archiving interviews and related material from the start of a project.

Languages

Italian

Regions Available for Work

United States- Southwest

Other Regions: Arizona|| California|| Washington DC|| Virginia|| Cleveland|| Toronto area|| Canada|| Tulsa Oklahoma|| Italy|| and other places as requested and arranged.

Purpose of Contact

I am available to answer questions, or provide mentorship to other oral historians
I am available for hire - as an oral historian, consultant, presenter, educator, or related services
I am available to collaborate - on research, community projects, artistic endeavors, or other joint undertakings with peers

Contact Mary Louise Continin Gordon