Alumni News

· · · · · · · ·

WSU Public History Alumni take a leading role in James M. Cox Exhibit

Tim Binkley, Dawne Dewey, Mary Kay Mabe, and Jeffrey Landis meet with Governor Strickland

On Thursday, May 1, a portion of the Center for the Evangelical United Brethren’s “James M. Cox: Ohio’s Progressive Governor” exhibit opened to the public in the Ohio Statehouse.  The exhibit consists of a large case of artifacts from the collections of the Ohio Historical Society and Wright State University.  There are also eight text panels, the official gubernatorial portrait from the Statehouse collection, two Ohio flags, and brochures about James Cox.  The exhibit is situated in a strategic place: the corridor between the Governor’s office and the Statehouse press office.  On the morning of May 1, Governor Ted Strickland met with the UTS project team (Archivist Tim Binkley, Researcher Mary Kay Mabe, and Exhibit Curator Jeffrey A. Landis) and representatives of project partners Ohio Humanities Council, Dayton Daily News, Ohio Historical Society, and Wright State University.  Governor Strickland toured the exhibit, noting and commenting on each artifact and display panel, and stating that, in his opinion, James Cox was Ohio’s greatest governor.  The Dayton Daily News underwrote the re-design, installation, and printing expenses for the Statehouse exhibit.

 

     

L to R: Dawne Dewey (Wright State University), James Strider

(Ohio Historical Society), Tim Binkley, Mary Kay Mabe, Karla

Garrett Harshaw (Dayton Daily News), Jeffrey Landis, Governor Ted

Strickland.

· · · · · · · ·

Tiffany O'Sheal: I am currently working as an archivist for the Utah State Archives.  I work as the Administrator for the Utah Public Notice Website, give regular trainings to state and local governments, update internal databases, assist agencies with records management related issues, and am the interim manager for the Records Analyst Section.  I am also the state representative from Utah for the Council for State Archivists initiative on Disaster Planning (IPER).  I am also actively involved in the Air Force community and local communities by being a board member for the Hill Officers' Spouses' Club and a Kids' Church teacher for Alpine church.  My husband, Capt. Richard "Hank" O'Sheal and I just flew back to Ohio recently to participate in the Air Force Marathon.

Maria Korte: I am an older student who graduated from the WSU Public History program in June 2008.  I attended part-time, completing the program in 4-1/2 years while working full-time at the U.S. Department of Energy site in Miamisburg, Ohio, called the Mound site.  I currently still work there in records management.  The Mound site does have a Mound Museum on site, which is looking for more volunteers.  I plan on helping there in the near future.  At the present time, I am still volunteering at the Museum Archives at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton on Fridays (because I work four ten-hour days during the week).  I did my Public History internship at WPAFB.  Since the Mound site will be moving records to West Virginia by next year, I am looking for another job; thus, I will soon discontinue volunteer work on Fridays in order to concentrate on employment opportunities.

Nathan Troup: I am a Manuscript Specialist at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection – Columbia (Missouri), and my duties include developing and maintaining the repository’s website, databases and other electronic information, processing collections, and providing reference service to users.  The Wright State Public History Program has helped me learn, or further develop the skills necessary, to fulfill the broad range of tasks this position requires.

Amber (McPherson) Miranda: I graduated in 2006 and currently am the Assistant Archivist at Southeast Missouri State University's Special Collections and Archives, which has a collection of approximately 3000 linear feet and encompasses materials on the social, environmental, and economic history of Southeast Missouri Bootheel and the surrounding area, as well as the records of Southeast Missouri State University itself.  In addition to processing and reference duties, I supervise 5 undergraduate student assistants, a graduate assistant, and several volunteers, serve as the archives webmaster, and am co-managing a digitization project aimed at History Day students.

Lisa (Pasquinelli) Rickey:I graduated from the Public History program in June 2008.  In August 2008, I began working as Reference Librarian in the archives at the Dayton Metro Library (DML).  My duties include providing reference service at the Local History reference desk, processing collections, and working on our CONTENTdm projects.  I also register DML for the Ohiolink EAD repository project and have begun submitting finding aids to it.  I use the skills I learned at Wright State on a daily basis, and I recommend WSU.  Nevertheless, my advice to anyone in this field is to get as much practical experience as you can through internships and volunteering in addition to your coursework.  It may be tough to juggle everything, but once you land that first job, you will realize it was absolutely worth all that hard work. 

Jessie Robinson: I graduated in 2004 from the Public History Program.  My first job out of school was as a Local Records Archivist here at the Library of Virginia in Richmond.  In 2005, I moved to a different section to become a State Records Archivist, and in 2007 I was promoted to Senior State Records Archivist.  I’m currently working on paper and electronic records from a variety of state agencies, including the most recent Virginia Secretaries of Administration and Public Safety, as well as historical records from two mental health hospitals.  I also passed the Certified Archivist exam in 2005.  I can honestly say that I utilize the skills and experience I gained as a student in the Public History program every day.

Tracie Evans: Over the last year, I have spent my time as the Curator of Collections at the Stonefield Historic site slowly upgrading the collections storage facilities, supervising the inventory work on site, and creating a long range plan for the collections care. In addition to my work at Stonefield I was a part of the team involved with the set up our the new H.H.Bennett Studio and History Center in the Wisconsin Dells. My roles included them accessioning and cataloging of the more than 5000+ objects belonging to the collection, preparation of all artifacts for the installation, supervise LTE assistance for the collections processing and installation, to install the sales room and technology areas of the exhibit, and the set up of the museum store's merchandise (I have extensive experience in the retail world). I also I taken over recently as the Historic Sites Division registrar for the SHSW. Outside of work I an also very busy as both a Girl Scout Jr Leader and a Cub Scout Bear Den leader.

Steve Hussman: Currently, I am involved with a number of projects including a tri-university collaborative project to initiate EAD encoding in all three of Arizona's major universities: Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and University of Arizona. This is a pretty big project, but is coming along great! We have already developed and agreed to a template, but have now to decide on a style sheet. At SAA in Denver, I presented a paper entitled: "The Archdruid with the Monkeywrench: Examining Collaborative Documentation Strategies and Environmental Collections in Arizona's Universities." On a personal note, my wife and I are proud parents of baby son, Brett Stephen, who was born in December of 1999.

Mary Oliver: I supervised the relocation of the collections of the historical society to our new facility in March, 2000 and have settled in nicely. I am now working as the archivist/curator/registrar for the society and the NCR Archive, which is a change from my previous duties with the society as the curator of collections. I am currently supervising a graduate student from Wright State, who is processing the NCR Archive 1913 Flood collection, and am developing internal policy for the archive staff and volunteers. Sarah Kathleen Oliver weighed in at 8 lb. 6oz, on June 26, 2000.

Richard S. Wirz: I graduated from the program in 1993 and immediately started an internship at the National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) Garber Facility. I continued my education at the George Washington University as an NEH Fellow in GW's Collections Management Certificate Program. I worked at NASM for around six years--primarily on the Dulles (now Udvar-Hazy) Center, a $200 million display, storage, restoration, etc. facility currently undergoing construction at the Dulles Airport in Virginia. In the middle of my time there, I did an eight month stint with the America's Smithsonian traveling exhibit, which is how I met my wife. In June 1999, I took a job as the Museum Program Manager for Air Force Space Command. I work with five museums around the country and several small heritage displays, one of which is in Greenland! Although the travel schedule is sometimes hectic, I have a really fun job.

Tanya Zanish-Belcher: I am currently the Head of the Special Collections Department at the Iowa State University Library. We have 6 FT staff (3 faculty, including myself); 32,000 linear ft. of collections, 30,000 rare volumes, 100,000 photographs, and 30,000 films. Our main focus is outreach and we are also experimenting with selected digitization. Our webpage is located at: http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/index.html
Professionally, I recently chaired the Nominating Committee (1999) for the Society of American Archivists; chaired the Nominating Committee (2000) for the Midwest Archives Conference; am co-chairing the MAC Program Committee for the Fall 2001 meeting; and co-authored (with Karen Mason) a recent article in Archival Issues (Fall, 2000): "A Room of One's Own: Women's Archives in the Year 2000."

Note: Tanya is now Vice President of the Midwest Archives Conference.