SALISBURY — In March, following a nationwide search, Salisbury native Aaron Kepley was named the Rowan Museum’s new director. Kepley, 29, took over the head position following the retirement of longtime director Kaye Brown Hirst.

He began his career at the Rowan Museum as an intern. Kepley, who graduated from Pfeiffer College with a bachelor of arts degree in history, has also interned at the Stanly County Museum. He continues to be the local historian for Grace Lower Stone Church.

Kepley has completed 30 hours of history and museum studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he won the National Council on Public History Graduate Student Project Award and an N.C. Humanities Council grant for his studies on “Past the Pipes: Stories of the Terra Cotta Community.”

Kepley was a historic interpreter for the Charlotte Museum of History and Town Creek Indian Mound State Historic Site. He most recently served as the assistant site manager at Reed Gold Mine state historic site before being chosen in March as the new Rowan Museum director.

—  Shavonne Walker