Presentations, Publications, and Public Outreach
As a Collections Manager at the UM Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, I also act as the manager and coordinator of access and outreach for the collections. This includes collaborating with instructors to bring materials to classes, tours for university and public groups, and museum outreach events such a Student Showcases and Archaeology Day. In Spring of 2022 alone, the collections were used in 14 class events and several more tours and outreach events, which I facilitated.
In 2017 I was selected to present at the Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums in the Thought Cafe Session. My poster and presentation focused on how museums can use the data gathered during routine IPM to understand and take action against specific pest problems. This was informed by my own work as the IPM monitor in the collections spaces at the CU Natural History Museum. The poster highlighted documentation techniques, simple ways to interpret and visually analyze the data, and how the data can be applied to improve collections care.
My article "An Overview of the Wisconsin Archaeology Collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum" was published in the journal The Wisconsin Archeologist. Written with my supervisor at the Milwaukee Public Museum, Curator of Anthropology Collections Dawn Scher Thomae, the article expounded on the collection's the major sites, strong type collections, and unique areas. We hoped to encourage more researchers to utilize the material, and in particular hoped to reach the graduate students at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The collections available at MPM are the largest natural history holdings in the state, and in the article we expressed the great wealth of information availabe in the Anthropology Department.
I have participated in public outreach at multiple institutions through events, workshops, and exhibit work. I have always enjoyed interacting with the public, and helping to answer the question: 'What do museum workers DO?" I also have been able to work frequently with young people interested in the museum field as a profession, most recently in the summer of 2017 as a mentor to two teen interns. I have staffed object presentation tables, designed and presented "pop-up" exhibits for the National Park Service's Centennial celebration, and even participated in Milwaukee's Halloween Hauntings trick-or-treating at the museum event, dressing up and talking about bioarchaeology to the visitors. The images here are just a sampling of some of the fun I have been able to have steping out from behind the scences to engage with the museum community.