About Me

With over 25 years of hands-on experience in collections management, exhibition development and advocacy of best practices and museum professional standards, I strive to communicate how and why collections and museums are vital to our modern society. Whether it is through my work at the University of Alaska Museum of the North or any one of the professional organizations in which I am an active participant, museums are a part of my life and I am dedicated to sharing that passion. My current goals include improving the collaborative and cross-disciplinary activities and research in the museum field, both in my own institution and across the nation.

In 2014, I took the jump back into academia and started working towards my Ph.D. at UAF. I selected the Interdisciplinary program because of the nature of my research questions. I'm interested in using a historical approach to understand the context from which the three largest museums in the state (the Alaska State Museums, including the Sheldon Jackson Museum; the University of Alaska Museum of the North; and the Anchorage Museum) were established and how that influenced their current character (mission and vision). I will use Museum Studies to look critically at the current state of our state's cultural sector, examining our unique strengths and weaknesses. Museum Studies, Anthropology, and Cross-Cultural Studies inform my approach to the future, with a special eye on seeing how Indigenous cultural centers compare to traditional western-style museums in meeting the needs of their communities.

My basic research questions include:

1. How has the historical context from which Alaska's museums grown impacted their mission, vision, and values?

2. How have the laws and ethics that govern American and Alaskan museums changed over the past 100 years, and how have those changes impacted our operations?

3. How are museums responding to the the needs of modern Alaskans?

My goal is to complete my project in the fall of 2023.

On May 2, 2019 I successfully defended my research proposal as well as my oral comprehensives, and advanced to candidacy. Below is my presentation to my committee.