2024 Leadership

Rebecca J. Johnston, president

Rebecca Johnston is a faculty member at Valencia College Downtown in Orlando, Florida. Rebecca’s interest in Hemingway began during one of many trips to Slovenia. Rebecca was the 2016 recipient of the Lewis-Reynolds-Smith Founder’s Fellowship and one of the 2017 recipients of the JFK Hemingway research grants. Her research interests center around World War One literature.

Massiel Valdez, Director of Cuban Affairs.

Massiel graduated with a BA in History from the University of Havana. She worked at the Ernest Hemingway House Museum, Finca Vigía, San Miguel del Padrón, Havana, Cuba between 2018 and 2022, where she served as a museologist specializing in the life and work of the American writer, Ernest Hemingway. She participated in the 18th International Colloquíum dedicated to Ernest Hemingway, in which she presented the paper: “The Female Representation of the New Woman in the Works Fiesta and A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway”, which was published by the magazine “La Jiribilla” in June 2021. She currently lives in Miami, Florida where she works at Florida National University.