Emerging Professionals Committee

Agazeet Haile | Committee Chair

Agazeet Haile grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and currently works as a Grants and Development Coordinator and an Advocacy and Development Specialist. In the future, she would like to create and implement cultural heritage practices and policies in regions of the world that currently lack ongoing support for the field, especially those affected by conflict and natural disasters. 

As the Chair of the Emerging Professionals Committee, Agazeet would like to create an organizational foundation for this committee and relevance amongst cultural heritage professionals within the U.S. for opportunities and mentorship. Within that, she would also love to focus on bridging the disconnect between developing heritage professionals and create new pathways for their professional growth.

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Luka Nedzbala | Committee Vice-Chair

Luka Nedzbala is an American-Slovene architect specializing in the protection of built cultural heritage. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Luka has lived and worked in several countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. He graduated top of his class from the Università degli studi di Torino in Turin, Italy, with the Masters degree Cultural Property Protection in Crisis Response. Since then, together with a colleague, he founded Bruns Nedzbala Heritage Solutions, to date advising clients on projects in Greece and Slovenia. His current work primarily deals with the complex interactions between cultural heritage sites and projects for tourism and development. In future, he aims to particularly focus on protection of built cultural heritage in post-conflict, post-disaster scenarios.

As part of the Emerging Professionals Committee, he looks forward to playing a part in the creation of improved resources to better communicate potential opportunities for emerging professionals, as we take the first steps to build lasting, meaningful careers in the cultural heritage sector.

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Madeline Artibee | Mentorship Program Coordinator

Madeline Artibee is a heritage professional with experience in historic preservation, disaster response, and international relations. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Sweet Briar College and a Master of Arts in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her professional experiences include positions at the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and an internship at the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. She recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Croatia studying the 2020 earthquakes and their effect on historic places. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Public History at Middle Tennessee State University, with a dissertation comparing the disaster response apparatus in Croatia and the U.S.

As part of the Emerging Professionals Committee, Madeline is excited to strengthen ties between the U.S. historic preservation community and the international cultural heritage sector and provide opportunities for other emerging professionals to meet their professional goals.

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Emelia Lehmann | Communications Officer

Emelia is a Boston-based cultural heritage professional with a decade of experience in fine art and cultural resource management, disaster response, and heritage planning. She was a 2023–2025 Presidential Management Fellow with the National Park Service and a 2023 MESDA Summer Institute Fellow, and she has held positions with PURE Insurance and the Smart Museum of Art, among others. She holds a master’s degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia School of Architecture and bachelor’s degree in History with Honors from the University of Chicago.

As a member of the Emerging Professionals Committee, Emelia looks forward to building a forum where young and emerging professionals can share resources, exchange expertise, and access meaningful networking and professional development opportunities. She is eager to meet and learn from peers across disciplines and regions, and is excited to contribute to a growing national and international community dedicated to supporting and uplifting the next generation of cultural heritage professionals.

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