SAAACAM Leadership & Staff

A retired civil servant with a 27 year career in the world of air traffic control, Deborah relocated to San Antonio to be a “close-by” grandmother teaching them the importance of their legacy. Opening a bed and breakfast in the King William area of San Antonio, named for the family matriarch, “Eva’s Escape at the Gardenia Inn” immersed her family in Deborah’s personal mission of love and service for family and community. Upon her family relocating to Atlanta, Deborah realized the commitment of the bed and breakfast would prevent her from spending that quality time with those grandbabies. Selling the property, Deborah turned to community advocacy with a mission to connect the African American community to each other, opportunities, and our history. Her work as the CEO/Director of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, a board member of Visit San Antonio along with serving on the City of San Antonio’s Airport Advisory Commission provides an opportunity to carry out her personal mission.

As the Chief Administrative Officer of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM), Jeff is leading efforts to build one of the largest museums of its kind in the United States. As a result of the team’s efforts, the museum is expanding its collection and curating exhibits that honor and preserve the rich African American cultural heritage of the San Antonio region and Southwest United States. By fostering community partnerships, securing funding, and driving strategic initiatives, Jeff is helping to ensure that this new landmark will serve as a powerful resource for education, cultural awareness, and historical preservation. He also currently serves as Board Chair for R.O.O.T.S Mentoring, Inc., a nonprofit focused on youth and family development, and is a member of the San Antonio Area African American Community Fund Board.

Dakotah Brown is the Project Coordinator where she focuses on San Antonio Green Book research, historical preservation, and project support. A 2024 graduate of Trinity University with a B.A. in Anthropology and minors in Spanish, Women and Gender Studies, and Museum Studies, Dakotah is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, but has a deep passion for all things San Antonio.

Taylor Foots serves as the Exhibit Space Supervisor at SAAACAM, where she is dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich history of African Americans in San Antonio and the South Texas region. With a background in nutrition, art and culture,Taylor has worked in curating exhibits, leading community engagement initiatives, and developing educational programs. Taylor played a pivotal role in launching The Soul of San Antonio exhibit and The Black History Month Art Market which has deepened public understanding of African American contributions to San Antonio. A passionate advocate for knowing our history, Taylor collaborates with local organizations and educators to ensure African American history is accessible and celebrated. Driven by a commitment to storytelling and education, Taylor strives to inspire future generations by uncovering and amplifying untold narratives of resilience and achievement.

Ever Garza received a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in History from the University of Texas in San Antonio. Currently, Ever serves as SAAACAM’s Program Assistant, and a docent in the exhibit space, Black History River Boat Tours and Cemetery Tours.

Cynthia Gibbs is the Executive Assistant to the CEO of SAAACAM, Deborah Omowale Jarmon. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and M.B.A. degrees from Florida A&M University. After 22-years with Merck & Co., Inc, she became an author and screenwriter. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Myra Davis Hemmings Resource Center, Children’s Chorus of San Antonio, and the Masters Leadership Program Alumni Association. Cynthia serves in ministry at Resurrection Church. She is a lifetime member of the San Antonio Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Gwyn Hartung serves as SAAACAM’s Church History Harvest Coordinator which means working directly with the community and creating pop-up exhibits allowing local churches to be stewards of their own history. Her goal is to bring history to the public in fun and exciting ways, fostering a love of the past for future generations. She is a graduate of the Public History Master’s program at St. Mary’s University where she focused on local women’s and workers’ history.

Pesha K. Mabrie, M.Ed is an educator with 10+ years in Student Affairs and college administration, working in admissions, student activities, housing, college access, and TRiO programs. She has evaluated educational grants throughout San Antonio and currently researches Negro Motorist Green-Book sites for the San Antonio African American Community Archive Museum (SAAACAM). A doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at UT San Antonio, Pesha advocates for enhancing education quality, empowering students as change agents, and promoting local African American history.

Born and raised on the southwest side of San Antonio, Cristal Mendez is a public historian who specializes in people’s history. She is dedicated to preserving and sharing stories of African descendants and working class communities in San Antonio. Cristal currently serves as the historian at the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum and exhibit consultant at the Museo del Westside.

Sandra Flores Ogogor is a South Texas native with roots throughout the South Texas borderlands. She is a graduate student at the University of Texas at San Antonio where she studies African American, Chicanx, and multicultural literature and history. Her research utilizes a critical lens to analyze the past through storytelling. She is the office manager at the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum. In this role she is able to blend her love of storytelling and her zeal for learning to grow as a museum administrator. Her work is guided by her passion and belief that the power of our culture and our stories is transformative.

Debra Seward serves as the Community Engagement Coordinator for the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum. With determination, it’s my passion to bring knowledge of the work that we do to the community at-large, which is to collect, preserve, and share the African American cultural heritage of the San Antonio region.

Jedda Silva is the Assistant Archivist at the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM). Passionate about preserving the histories of underrepresented communities, she is committed to ensuring these stories are accessible and never forgotten.

Caira Spenrath is a San Antonio native with roots in the Texas Hill Country. Her passion for history and genealogy led to degrees in International Affairs from the University of the Incarnate Word, Library Science from Texas Woman’s University, and Archival Management certification from the University of North Texas. After working in archives at the 18th Wing on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin, she now serves as archivist for the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM), where she helps preserve and share the region’s African American cultural heritage.

Dr. Katherine Kuehler Walters is an exhibit researcher with the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM). She finished her PhD in American History from Texas A&M in 2018 with a specialization in race and gender history in the US South, Texas, and the Borderlands and has written on numerous topics including voting rights, grassroots civil rights activism, and structural racism in Texas. She was especially honored to present her research on African American civil rights activist and attorney, Richard D. Evans, the first president of the Texas State Conference of Branches of the NAACP, at that organization’s 80th annual meeting in 2017. Before working for SAAACAM, she was an assistant editor for the Handbook of Texas, project editor for the Handbook of Texas Women, and taught US history at Our Lady of the Lake University. She started with SAAACAM as a part-time volunteer researcher during the pandemic in 2020.

In her current role as Program Director of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM), Heather has been able to pursue her love of history and culture, while utilizing her organizational and project management skills. It is her personal mission to provide access to the invaluable stories about the community in which she serves. SAAACAM’s mission is to collect, preserve, and share the cultural heritage of African Americans in the San Antonio region, so it beautifully compliments her personal goal to assist in the delivery of culturally diverse, historically accurate, and educational programming to everyone in her community.