Gail Cornell is an accomplished architectural historian whose extensive research and lectures on the history of architecture have taken her to Italy, France, Spain, Sicily, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, and North Africa on numerous occasions. A graduate of Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, Ms. Cornell has lectured on many Smithsonian Journeys tours throughout Europe and the world over the past 20 years, engaging travelers on subjects such as Greek and Roman antiquities in the Mediterranean, the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and the neoclassical masterpieces of the Baltic capitals.  

Since 2023, Gail has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Graduate School of Historic Preservation at Mississippi State University. Her prior academic roles include eight years as a lecturer in architecture, art, and design at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art and ten years as an adjunct faculty member at New York University.  

In April 2021, Gail and her husband Tom became residents of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where she currently works as city planner and preservationist. She is the founder of Saving Historic Hazlehurst, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the city's cultural heritage, including its historic buildings, monuments, and artifacts. Ms. Cornell’s expertise in historic preservation has been instrumental in restoring their neoclassical home, the Robert L. Covington house, built between 1905 and 1907.