Abby Waldrop is the Administrative Generalist for TYDE.
She supports the team with planning and events, research and infrastructure operations, and co-supervises the TYDE student assistants.
Waldrop brings a wealth of knowledge from her multi-layered professional background in film and event production logistics, promotional marketing, professional organizing, and as an executive assistant to high-profile individuals.
Prior to her arrival at UVa she served her alma mater, California State University, Fullerton, and its Lawrence B. de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History for ten years as its lead project manager of oral history. In this role she conducted over a hundred interviews with Marine Corps combat veterans, former Japanese American internees, and a bipartisan array of California’s most prominent politicians, including the longstanding Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Alongside this work, she collaborated with students, faculty and researchers teaching the methodologies of oral history, emphasizing its relevance in the historical research model, and promoting it as an indispensable tool to facilitate civil discourse.
A cultural historian by academic training, she holds degrees from two California State universities. Waldrop wrote her master’s thesis on the history and worthiness of film preservation. She worked full-time while putting herself through college and graduate school, and thus remains a proud advocate of public higher education.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she briefly attended high school in Charlottesville, and is thrilled to have returned as a member of the UVa community. When she’s out of the office she’s usually doing some nature-oriented activity, helping rescue animals, or traveling to her favorite place in Montana.