Please welcome our new Community Engagement Manager, Mariana Barros-Titus!
Mariana joined us in early May 2023 and is the first to hold this newly created position. Prior to this role, she served as the DC History Center’s inaugural Latino/a/x Community Outreach Fellow. She also created a Latino/a/x research guide as an independent study project while attending the University of the District of Columbia.
Mariana’s ongoing responsibilities in this role include supporting the organization’s vision to reach into all eight wards of the District and making the community connections necessary to fulfill that vision; supporting stakeholder advisory groups, including the DC History Center’s Community Council and Latino/a/x Advisory Group, and leveraging their participants as conduits to the communities and perspectives they represent; and building meaningful relationships with grassroots, community-based organizations and leaders to help the center showcase DC’s diverse communities.
Before joining the DC History Center’s full time staff, she worked as project coordinator and researcher for the Herbert Denton Biography Project, an oral history project that is focused on chronicling the life and times of the Washington Post’s first Black city editor. In her spare time, she continues to serve as the project manager and Chair of the Public History Committee for the Black Broad Branch Project, a public history and advocacy project rooted in the history of Black-owned land in the 19th and 20th centuries in Washington, DC.
Originally from Colombia, Mariana is passionate about nuancing the public’s understanding of DC’s rich and diverse history and centering the perspectives of historically underrepresented communities. Her interest in learning about DC’s local history comes from a deep desire to situate her own experience in her chosen home and to see that experience reflected in the historical narratives that are used to shape the city’s history.
Mariana earned a BA in Political Science from the University of the District of Columbia, and her work is primarily focused on analyzing and dismantling barriers to system literacy for historically underrepresented communities. She is passionate about informing public discourse through the sharing of community histories and individual life histories, which can serve as powerful reflections of governance in practice.