Mary Ellen Pethel

MARY ELLEN PETHEL is an associate professor, public historian, and academic entrepreneur at Belmont University, where she directs university-wide initiatives, including the Global Honors Program. Her work focuses on history, leadership, education, and public scholarship, with an emphasis on connecting academic inquiry with community engagement.

Pethel earned her Ph.D. in History from Georgia State University and holds a post-graduate certificate in Digital Public Humanities from George Mason University. She joined Belmont’s faculty in 2018 and has since played a key role in shaping honors education and experiential learning. She served as senior data fellow (2022-2025) as well as academic director for several collaborative programs: Queen’s University Belfast Summer Institute, University You (Metro Nashville Public Schools), and Fisk–Belmont Social Justice Collaborative.

An award-winning author of six books, Pethel is widely recognized for her scholarship on education, women’s leadership, sports history, and social change. Her book Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers received the Tennessee History Award and examines the lasting impact of Title IX through the legacy of Pat Summitt and other women connected to the Volunteer State. In 2025, she co-authored Howdy! The Minnie Pearl Story with Dr. Don Cusic. The definitive biography of Sarah Cannon—better known as Minnie Pearl—draws on archival research, interviews, and more than 150 historic photographs to capture Minnie’s enduring charm and Sarah Cannon’s lasting cultural legacy.

As executive director of Nashville Sites since 2019, Pethel has transformed a big dream into a nationally recognized digital public history platform offering more than 40 free, mobile-friendly walking and driving tours throughout Nashville. Through Nashville Sites, she collaborates with cultural institutions, local experts, nonprofits, public servants, and students and faculty at Belmont University, Vanderbilt University, Middle Tennessee State University, Tennessee State University, and Fisk University to bring place-based history to broad public audiences.

Pethel’s work in media further extends her commitment to public history. She served as faculty advisor for the student-directed documentary Exit 207: The Soul of Nashville and as a historical consultant and on-screen cast member for Facing the Laughter: Minnie Pearl. Current documentary projects include her work as a senior consultant on the docuseries If Not For Them and as a producer for a documentary examining the Civil Rights movement in Nashville.

At Belmont, she teaches courses including Making the Modern City, An Honorable Life, Leadership Across Cultures, Sports in American Society, The Human Story: A Documentary Project, and Nashville Sites and Civil Rights. She also serves as archivist at Harpeth Hall School and regularly engages public audiences through lectures, interviews, and media appearances.