Tsione Wolde-Michael
Tsione Wolde-Michael is the founder and director of the Center for Restorative History at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where she also serves as curator of African American Social Justice History. Her work focuses on racial redress through innovative approaches to community engagement, collections management, cultural heritage preservation, and exhibitions, including the landmark Slavery and Freedom show at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Tsione's international work in Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, and the United Kingdom has focused on collaborating with local art and public history institutions to reinterpret colonial collections. As part of the Slave Wrecks Project, she worked with maritime archaeologists across Africa and the Caribbean to recover the first-known objects from underwater slave shipwrecks.
Tsione's 11+ years of experience in the field also extends to digital media and online exhibitions, writing for academic publications, teaching, and lecturing around the country. Her research has won awards from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright Scholars Program, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, among other institutions.
Her current projects include a special joint Smithsonian-wide initiative to document the history of the Black Lives Matter movement. She is also leading the Smithsonian's first-ever decolonisation tactical planning team.
Tsione holds a bachelor’s degree in Women and Gender Studies from Macalester College and a master’s degree in History from Harvard University.