I’m a communications and museum professional with a passion for research, storytelling, relationship-building, and community engagement. I connect strategic communications with curatorial leadership, using my experience in advocacy, outreach, and donor relations to turn great ideas into successful, long-lasting programs.

Research & Story Development

Research is at the heart of everything I do. I’ve spent my career digging into archives, primary sources, and oral histories to find the stories others overlooked, then verifying every detail before it reaches the public. As a journalist, I interviewed sources and supervised fact-checking for national publications. As a historian with a master’s degree, I’ve presented peer-reviewed research and documented historic sites for Texas Historical Commission designations. As a curator, I’ve turned raw collections and forgotten records into exhibitions that reconnect communities with their own past. I know how to find the source, confirm the facts, and shape what I uncover into a story audiences want to hear.

Communications & Editorial Leadership

I built my career in journalism and editorial management, learning early how to find a story and tell it with accuracy and impact. As a managing editor for national publications, I led editorial calendars, supervised teams, and upheld rigorous accuracy and brand standards under real deadline pressure. This experience taught me how to keep a large, diversified operation consistent without losing quality along the way.

I also build social media strategies that turn passive followers into engaged communities. Using storytelling, I planned and executed content across platforms that significantly grew digital engagement. I’ve applied that same approach to branded and client work through my own business, KDT Creative. Whether the goal is community connection or audience growth, I create content people actually want to engage with.

Curatorial & Museum Leadership

For over a decade, I led curatorial strategy for a municipal museum, researching, writing, and developing the interpretive content that turns a collection into a story worth reading. I’ve grown public engagement, secured and managed grant funding, led citywide initiatives from concept through implementation, and built the kind of trust with city leadership and community stakeholders that turns a good idea into a supported program.

My curatorial background also includes leading full museum and exhibition builds under tight timelines, modernizing archives and collections systems, and stepping into contract and satellite projects that demanded fast, confident leadership from day one. Whatever the setting, I bring the same core strength: the ability to take complex material and logistics and turn them into something clear and credible.

LinkedIn Profile

kellithomerson@kdtcreative.com
@KThomerson_UGC (IG)
@kelli_genxugc (TT)
@KThomerson_UGC (X)