Community Fellows 

Visiting institute community fellows join our public history scholars, students and local partners on the campus of UNLV, in the city of Las Vegas and the thriving cultural landscapes of the Mojave Desert. Fellows are collaborators on our community-based research initiatives and join us to share the experience of collaborative public history work and actively work in person with students and professors on current projects.

The 2025 Community Fellow is Michael Blum, Executive Director of Sea of Clouds and lead researcher on our shared National Park Service/CESU Grants in support of the History of California Surfing Multiple Document Project. This innovative collaboration between the NPS Community Partners Program, Sea of Clouds and the Reid Public History Institute created  unique research-based historic preservation documents for sites associated with the history of surfing. The project also created a new model of three-part research collaboration between community organizations, a research university and the NPS. 

Photo Above: Michael Blum on the Hunting Beach Pier discussing possible National Register Listing site mapping and boundaries with UNLV history graduate students Fabian Rebolledo and Joe Noce October, 2023