Jennifer M. Perunko

Jennifer M. Perunko, Historian at the National Cemetery Administration (NCA), joined the Department of Veterans Affairs in October 2006. In her nearly fifteen years with NCA, she has overseen projects to restore 150 of the oldest monuments in the NCA cemeteries and introduce interpretive signage as part of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. She has also conducted extensive research on Confederate burials in NCA cemeteries, and the history of the Mount Moriah Naval Plot (Philadelphia, PA), which VA took over in 1977, after the U.S. Naval Home in the city closed. On a daily basis, Jennifer supports the NCA field responding to historical inquires on burials and headstones, and providing documentation on the built environment of the cemeteries. She previously worked at the National Park Service as a Maritime Historian and Preservation Specialist with the Maritime Heritage Program, Park History Program, Cultural Resources Directorate, Washington D.C. While there she worked as part on an intergovernmental team to develop a program to transfer ownership of the nation’s historic lighthouses to new stewards for preservation and use. She has an M.A. in Historic Preservation from Goucher College, and B.A. in Anthropology and French from James Madison University.