Preservation Texas Hires West Texas Heritage Center Director and Associate
Preservation Texas is pleased to welcome Stephen Siwinski as West Texas Heritage Center Director and Alejandra I. Maese-Mora as West Texas Heritage Center Associate. Both Stephen and Alejandra will play important roles in expanding the Center’s retail offerings, exhibitions, and public programming while strengthening its position as a hub for historic preservation, education, and community engagement in West Texas.
We’re excited about what’s ahead for the West Texas Heritage Center and look forward to bringing new programs, events, and opportunities to El Paso and the broader region!
Stephen Siwinski, West Texas Heritage Center Director
Stephen brings more than two decades of experience in communications, historic preservation, and public history, with a career focused on connecting communities, scholars, and artists with the stories embedded in historic places, artifacts, and archives. Stephen’s professional experience includes leadership roles with the Missouri Secretary of State, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. Throughout his career, he has developed award-winning programs, exhibitions, digital experiences, and public engagement initiatives that make history more approachable, relevant, and compelling.
Alejandra I. Maese-Mora, West Texas Heritage Center Associate
Alejandra is a bicultural, bilingual Mexican-American archaeologist that specializes in Museums and Public Archaeology. With an undergraduate degree in archaeology, her work sits at the intersection of collections care and exhibition development with a material culture perspective. Her Master's Thesis, Death of Curiosity? explores the hypothesis of university museums being the intellectual direct descendants of cabinets of curiosity. With experience working on both the U.S. and Mexico, her work is driven by a commitment to ethical collections stewardship and community-centered interpretation.