Research Route 66:
Preserving and Celebrating the Stories of Route 66 for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Kaisa Barthuli

Director (retired), VIP (Volunteer in the Parks) Program Liaison
Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program
National Park Service

Kaisa Barthuli has worked in cultural resource management with the National Park Service for 35 years. She joined its Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2002 and served as Program Director from 2009–2025, managing grants and technical assistance to help individuals, nonprofits, communities, and government agencies preserve and revitalize the places and stories of historic Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Now retired, she continues as a Volunteer-in-Parks liaison to the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, an ex-officio board member of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, and Chair of the Historic Roads Subcommittee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites Scientific Committee on Cultural Routes.

Dr. David King Dunaway

Oral historian
Chair, Road Ahead Research and Education Working Group
Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership

Dr. David Dunaway is an internationally recognized scholar of history, literature, and American Studies who has taught at UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of New Mexico. He earned the first Ph.D. in American Studies from UC Berkeley and has spent more than 25 years documenting Route 66 through oral histories, scholarship, and public radio.

He edited the road's first anthology, A Route 66 Companion, produced the NEH- and state humanities council-funded public radio series Across the Tracks, and co-edited Researching Route 66, the first book-length Route 66 bibliography, for the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. He has authored or edited ten histories and biographies, including the classic Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology.

Dr. Dunaway served as the academic member of the Department of the Interior's Federal Advisory Council on Route 66 and is Director of the Working Group on Route 66 Research and Education for Route 66: The Road Ahead.

Amanda Bryden

Registrar of History & Historic Sites
Illinois State Museum

Amanda Bryden is Registrar of History at the Illinois State Museum. She has worked in museums and historic sites for over 20 years and her professional background includes museum administration, collections management, operations, archives, historic preservation, exhibitions, and interpretation. She earned a BA in History from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and an MA in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University.

Kathleen Seale

Coordinator
Rolla and Springfield Research Centers
The State Historical Society of Missouri

Katie Seale's family tree is firmly planted in southwest Missouri with eight generations having lived in the region. She received her master's degree in history at Oklahoma State University. Seale joined the Springfield Center in 2016 and the Rolla Research Center in 2017 as a senior archivist. Currently, she coordinates both the Springfield and Rolla Research Centers and is heavily involved in preserving the history of Route 66, and its birthplace of Springfield. Seale is also an avid St. Louis Blues fan.

Peter Runge

Head of Special Collections and Archives
Northern Arizona University – Cline Library

Peter Runge is Head of Special Collections and Archives at Cline Library at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Route 66. He has served in this role since 2013 and previously was Cline Library's Manuscripts and Digital Content Curator from 2005–2011.

Before joining Cline Library, Peter worked in special collections and archives at UC San Diego's Geisel Library, the University at Albany (SUNY), and Union College. He also served as Head of Special Collections and Archives at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Robert E. Kennedy Library from 2011–2013.