Significant Projects
Past and present projects that have shaped my personal and professional life.
01
Family
Personally, the past 10-15 years have seen a lot of adjustment. I had four kids, wrote a dissertation, and worked at five different academic institutions. One thing that has kept me grounded and given me unending support is my family - my husband and kids. Having kids has kept me grounded in the real world, understanding the obligations and expectations outside academia.
02
Dissertation Completion
I began my journey towards earning a doctorate degree in 2008. It was a long and winding path, where I developed and redeveloped my project multiple times. In 2012, I defended my dissertation proposal and began more actively analyzing museum collections, along with teaching and working in the Maxwell Museum. By 2015, I had finished my main analyses and started pulling together data, exploring quantitative methods, and writing. The process always takes longer than expected, but I defended on November 8, 2019 (after a decade long journey)!
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Check out my dissertation - here
03
Program Revamp
During my first two years at Adams State, I have worked to update and revamp the anthropology major/minor and the Cultural Resource Management masters degree. This included developing undergraduate courses that better aligned with the mission and vision of the institution, as well as fit into newly developed meta-majors and certificates. For the masters program, I am working on creating a broader set of electives and standardized policies. This has forced me to move beyond just teaching pedagogy/andragogy into program development and administrative duties.
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More info on the CRM program - here
Next step is getting a field school back up and running that pulls on the amazing history and culture of the region.
04
The San Juans
For the last 15 years I have worked sporadically in the San Juans. This experience has helped to shape my personal and professional goals. I fell in love with the Rockies, but I also gained important skills in teaching and running field projects.
