Museum Specialist, National Museum of American History
Karina is a dedicated professional with a combined experience in academic research, museum education, project development, and collections management and care. Over the years in the museum field, she has worked with collections that include historic, contemporary, and archaeological artifacts, art, and textiles. Currently, Karina is working at the National Museum of American History on their newest gallery, the Molina Family Latino Gallery. The gallery will be the first space at the Smithsonian dedicated to highlighting the U.S. Latino experience and is the precursor to the new National Museum of American Latino passed by Congress in 2020. She is working with the lead curator, Dr. Margaret Salazar-Porzio from the National Museum of America, and a team of experts to process objects into the national collection, conduct historical research, and support exhibit coordination for the 2025 Latinx Youth Movements exhibition. In addition, she assisted with installing objects for the opening of the gallery’s first exhibition, ¡Presente!, in the Summer of 2022. Karina is a first-generation student, receiving her Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in Collections Management and Care in 2020. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and History, with a minor in Business from Montclair State University in 2018. Her areas of interest included Cultural Anthropology, Colonial Archaeology, and Military History.