In a quiet office at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Michele Curran Cornell spends her weekdays immersed in history—not the kind found in textbooks, but the kind that impacts families and honors those who gave everything for our country. As a historian at the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (), Cornell is on a mission to identify fallen heroes, providing answers to families who have waited generations for answers.*
Cornell’s path to this vital work began at 㴫ý, where she honed the skills that would ultimately lead to her meaningful career. From her undergraduate years, to earning a Ph.D. in history, Cornell’s journey is a testament to the power of mentorship, the support of a dedicated academic community and a deep, personal commitment to honoring the sacrifices of U.S. service members.
A Passion for History
Cornell’s story starts in her hometown of Lisbon, Ohio where she attended Beaver Local High School before enrolling at Kent State’s East Liverpool campus. It was there that Cornell, even as a high school student, began earning college credits—a head start that helped propel her academic career. After high school graduation she transitioned to the Kent campus, where her passion for history took root.
Several of Cornell’s family members, including her father, sister, uncle and cousins, pursued various educational paths at Kent State, leading to successful careers. She believes the university provides opportunities for working-class families to achieve middle-class status. She appreciates how Kent State supports both community roots and personal growth, offering diverse career paths.
Growing up, Cornell’s interest in history was sparked by anniversary commemorations of World War II and influenced by movies like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, as well as books, magazines and other media which had an impact on her understanding of history. This fascination deepened when she started exploring the complex narratives of military service and sacrifice. Yet, it was a series of inspiring professors at Kent State who shaped her academic journey.
“I had some amazing professors who illuminated the possibilities for you and ignited your creativity and your imagination about what you could do as a career,” Cornell recalls.
Her undergraduate years were filled with academic exploration. Cornell experimented with accounting, political science and international relations, but history ultimately became her calling. She also discovered a passion for research—an experience that would shape her future.
A Journey of Growth at Kent State
At Kent State, Cornell thrived in an environment that valued both academic rigor and community. She earned all of her degrees in history at Kent State, including a B.A. in 2009 (minor in political science), followed by an M.A. in 2011 and a Ph.D. in 2018. Throughout her studies, she was encouraged by professors, given opportunities to teach and mentored by faculty who pushed her to be her best.
As a senior, Cornell also participated in Kent State’s Washington Program in National Issues, which exposed her to various career opportunities and solidified her decision to pursue a mission-driven career rather than politics. She decided to return to Kent State for her master’s degree, where she felt a strong sense of belonging and purpose amid the 2008 financial crisis that made the job market challenging. But mostly she wanted to expand her knowledge and skills and got her first chance to teach history to undergraduates as a teaching assistant and then a graduate instructor.
“It’s important to teach students to critically analyze sources, identify biases and form their own interpretations, skills that are valuable both in historical research and in understanding current events,” Cornell said. “I believe in putting into your education everything that you can so that you can get the most out of it. The professors at Kent State really pushed you on that. So, you knew what you had to do to achieve what they expected of you, and I felt like that was really upheld in my master’s program and especially in my Ph.D. program.”
Her fondest memories are of presenting her research at regional, national and international history conferences, but she got her first experiences at the Graduate Student Senates’ research symposium.
“It was nerve-wracking but incredibly rewarding,” she remembers. “I got to share my work with peers and professors and the feedback I received was invaluable.”
Despite the tough job market for history majors, Cornell decided to pursue a doctoral degree. She applied to several schools and ultimately chose Kent State. Her Ph.D. experience included working as a teaching assistant and research assistant for various professors and mentoring students. She also taught her own courses as a graduate instructor and later an adjunct professor, finding it rewarding to engage with students and help them develop a broader understanding of the world through history.
“I remember when I gave my dissertation draft to my advisor [Elizabeth Smith Pryor, Ph.D.] thinking I would be defending it soon,” Cornell said. “She came back to me and said, ‘This is good, but I know you can do better.’ Oh my God, I was crushed but challenged.”
Smith Pryor posed questions that she expected Cornell to figure out how to answer, so she had to go back to the drawing board and start to rewrite.
“Those additional two years of rewriting were hard, but they made me the historian I am today,” Cornell said. “She [Smith Pryor] set the standard of excellence and it was up to me to achieve that standard. She wasn't going to lower the bar so I could get my degree. No, she maintained it. She pointed me in the right direction. She just knew a way to get me to think for myself and not tell me how to do it but help me figure out how I could do it myself and I really feel like that's kind of the difference between Kent State and a lot of other institutions. Kent State really gave you all the tools that you needed to succeed and it was up to you if you wanted to meet the standard of excellence that they set.”
Cornell said she appreciates how Kent State allowed her to stay close to her family while providing opportunities typical of a major university, such as study abroad programs. She also recalled a class project at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park that led to a publication with History Professor Kenneth Bindas, Ph.D.
Additionally, she learned about the importance of being a team player, which is crucial in her work with the DPAA. She understands and appreciates the need for team dynamics and mutual understanding to achieve mission goals in a multidisciplinary environment where ensuring safety is crucial to conducting field work on former battlefields in foreign countries.
Working for SNA and DPAA
Encouraged by her professors to cast a wide net when applying for jobs, she applied for a position with a contracting company that supports DPAA, called at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, in Hawaii. Despite initial concerns about relocating her dog, Maverick, Cornell and her supportive husband, Jeff, moved to Hawaii, where she worked as a Korean War historian. After a year and a half, they decided to return to the mainland for a more stable lifestyle and settled in Nebraska, where their daughter was born in 2021. Cornell worked at SNA International for five and a half years before joining the DPAA in June 2024.
A Commitment to Our Fallen Heroes
Today, Cornell works as a historian at DPAA where she puts the historical research skills she developed at Kent State to work for military families. Her job is to try to provide answers to families about what happened to their loved one when they died in U.S. military service. Whether the service member was killed in action, taken as prisoners of war (POW) or went missing in action (MIA), Cornell’s work seeks to find the remains of those who were not recovered.
“I work on World War II projects and those families have gone 75 to 80 years without knowing what happened to their family member,” Cornell said. “That kind of trauma leaves a hole in the family that impacts the immediate nuclear unit and the generations that follow. Despite the passing of time, knowing that DPAA is still searching—and has succeeded at identifying and returning long lost loved ones—I think gives a small measure of comfort and hope to families that have suffered a great loss. For me, it’s an honor and a privilege to play a small part in that process.”
Historical work at DPAA depends heavily on archival research conducted in military, governmental and private archives and museums. A regular day for Cornell is a hunt for information.
"To provide answers, historians ask difficult research questions and gather as many sources as possible to learn all that we can about loss incidents," Cornell said. "DPAA historians regularly dig into military unit records, such as war diaries, action reports, war histories, deck logs, missing air crew reports and more. The challenge is a difficult one."
“Sometimes records are very detailed but often in heavy combat zones, the record keeping was minimal or recorded days after events transpired,” Cornell said. “So, it is normal for historians to have to dig deep into archival records and piece together information about a loss incident.”
One of her current projects involves the World War II Iwo Jima —a task that involves extensive research, analysis, and coordination with DPAA laboratories to historically and scientifically match remains with potential identities. With sparce records, Cornell and the “disinterment team” have developed innovative methods such as cemetery mapping and geospatial analysis to learn more about Unknowns by analyzing the data they have developed on “resolved casualties” or service members whose remains were recovered and identified in the past. Cornell thrives on analyzing past recovery and burial patterns to understand more about battlefields as recovery landscapes.
In April 2024, Cornell participated in a DPAA mission to Iwo Jima, Japan where she conducted archival research and participated in field work operations. With the help of officials from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Japan Self Defense Force, the DPAA team collected a wealth of documents to aid their cause, investigated the three former Marine Division Cemeteries and conducted survey work on Iwo Jima’s changing beaches.
“Our mission is important to Americans, but it also transcends borders,” Cornell said. “It allows two nations to heal past wounds, build a friendship and invest in our mutual alliance.”
Ultimately, Cornell finds the work rewarding in that she has the ability to make history matter in people’s lives today.
“My goal is to see all of the Iwo Jima Unknowns disinterred and to try to see as many as possible identified,” Cornell said. “I think it is really important work because of the way we get to interact with families, and we get to remember America’s fallen heroes and really provide answers for families who haven’t had them for over a generation or so,” Cornell said.
Gratitude and Reflection
Reflecting on her journey, Cornell is deeply grateful for the support she received at Kent State.
"Choosing Kent State is the reason that I am where I am today," she said. “Kent State has invested in me since day one. I put in a lot of hard work, but there are so many people that uplifted me along the way. Without the type of support that you can get from an institution like Kent State, you can’t do it yourself.”
Advice for Aspiring Historians
For students interested in following a similar path, Cornell emphasizes the importance of critical thinking, strong research skills and effective communication. She encourages future historians to take advantage of internships, seek out opportunities to present their research and build a strong support network early on.
"Investing in those critical thinking skills, being able to take primary and secondary documents and put them together, analyze them into what they mean and writing that into a cohesive narrative is really most important," Cornell advises.
*All information provided by Michele Cornell is reflective of her personal experience and not necessarily representative of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency or the Department of Defense.
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