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You have a background in Education—what drew you into graduate work and an academic career in History?
When I got my undergraduate degree I knew I wanted to teach. I had been teaching since I was four and trying to teach my little brother to read. Instead of ending up in a K-12 school I began a career as a museum educator. This allowed me to work with audiences of all ages and teach the way I learned best, hands-on, using artifacts. I also had the opportunity to work in creating museum exhibits and managing museum collections. After we moved to Colorado I spent a year as a museum director, getting the Adams County Museum open and running. I also consulted and worked on many projects including in Japan. My husband, Geoff and I also developed an exhibit that went to Antarctica. I consider all of this to be different forms of teaching.
Another thing about working in museums is that I got to learn how to do things like they did in the past. I can blacksmith, cook on a wood stove, knit and sew period clothing by hand. It makes a difference when you tell students not how they did things in the past, but how we do these things. I also have quite a collection of old artifacts so I can bring tangible parts of the past to my classes. Holding a thousand year old piece of pottery gives students a different experience than simply showing them a picture.
Recently you’ve become Chair of the Public History Committee of the Western History Association—what challenges and opportunities do these responsibilities entail?
The hardest part of this is raising funds each year for our annual reception at the conference. The best part is when we put together a really good session. In 2019 we gathered people who had collected materials from disasters like floods or shooter incidents. These artifacts document difficult parts of our history. The audience was interested in how this intersects with traditional understandings of history. Actually, using our committee to get people together to talk about diverse ways to teach western American history is the best part of this job.
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