Our Team

Elizabeth A. Drummond, PhD, Director

Elizabeth Drummond is associate professor of history in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, affiliated faculty in Jewish Studies, and the director of the Secondary Teacher Preparation Program in Social Studies/History at LMU. She was educated at Georgetown University, with a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Foreign Service, a Master’s in German and European Studies, and a Ph.D. in History. Professor Drummond is a social and cultural historian of modern Central Europe, with a focus on national identity, nationalist mobilization, and the experience of national conflict in the German Polish borderlands. More recently, she has been working on a project about the Weimar-era German artist Max Thalmann. She is also a member of the team that founded and maintains the interdisciplinary digital project the German Studies Collaboratory. Professor Drummond teaches broadly in modern European and global history, including first-year seminars on the First World War and the Holocaust, introductory surveys in world history, environmental history, and European history, and upper-division courses about modern Germany, European imperialism, gender history, popular culture, and public history. She received the 2022 President’s Fritz B Burns Distinguished Teaching Award from LMU and a 2022 Teacher Eddy Award from the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce. Professor Drummond’s previous leadership roles include chair of History (2017-2021), chair of the BCLA College Council, and Faculty Senate President (2015-2017). Website

Ward Celeste, Administrative Coordinator

Celeste Ward is the Administrative Coordinator for The Marymount Institute for Faith, Culture, and the Arts. She has spent over a decade working at Loyola Marymount University. Celeste earned her BA from University of Michigan and her MFA from American University in Washington DC.

Sr. Luísa Maria Almendra, RSHM, PhD, Visiting Scholar 

Luísa Almendra is a university professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a religious member of the Institute of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. She holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Theology from Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, Italy (2005), as well as a master’s degree in biblical sciences (1997) from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, Italy. She is a senior lecturer in Old and New Testament studies, Biblical Hebrew language, and religious culture at the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of Portugal. She has authored several essays on Biblical Wisdom Literature and is an active member of the International Society for the Study of Biblical and Semitic Rhetoric (RBS), L'Association Catholique Française pour l'Étude de la Bible (ACFEB), and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). She has been an invited professor at Pernambuco Catholic University (UNICAP - Recife, Brazil) and the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (ICT - Toulouse, France). She served as the Director of the Research Centre for Theology and Religion Studies (CITER) and remains a full member of this Centre. Her research interests mainly include Biblical Wisdom Literature, Biblical and Semitic Rhetoric, Biblical Intertextuality, and the intersection of Bible and Literature/Art. Recently, she was appointed as the titular head of the Chair of Jewish and Christian Biblical Studies. The Chair aims to foster an innovative critical-hermeneutic approach to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, broadening a research area that has so far been insufficiently explored. Ciência Vitae - ORCID - Ciência-UCP

Alyssa Castellanos, Research Assistant

Alyssa Castellanos is a History major, with a theology minor, and part of the Student Preparation Program. She plans to become a history teacher. At the Marymount Institute, Alyssa is doing research on the Marymount educational tradition tradition, the history of Marymount College, and the Loyola Marymount merger. In her own words, “This work means a lot to me, as I want to make sure this history is represented at our school today.” Alyssa is studying abroad during the spring 2026 semester.

Alaina Choksi, Communication Assistant

Alaina Choksi is a History and Economics double major at LMU. As the Communications Assistant for the Marymount Institute, she helps create and manage social media content that highlights the Institute’s work and community. 

Leah Littie, Rains Research Assistant

Leah Little is a third-year Political Science major with a minor in history. She first discovered LMU’s Marymount origins during her first year and ever since has been eager to learn more about the institute. In her own words, “I am excited to both learn about and help preserve the university’s history.”