Alumni Affairs

Are you a Public History graduate? Want to feature your work here? Email mhamilt3@uwo.ca with news about what you are doing now. Alumni can also join our UWO Public History Alumni Facebook community and our LinkedIn group.

Profiles

A is for Ambition: A Profile of Adam Crymble
by Vicky Tran

Ambition, hard work, and initiative are his guiding principles. History and communication are his passions. Reaching a wide audience is his goal. UWO Public History graduate, Adam Crymble, shares about his experience in the program, what he’s been doing since graduation, and what lies ahead—in a new country. Read more

Alumni News

Congratulations to Luvneet Rana (2010-11) who is the new Digital Archivist at the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan.

Congratulations to Lois Fenton (2008-9) who starts a contract with Joan Holmes and Associates in Ottawa this month, and to Brent Wiancko (2010-11) who starts one with Ancestry.com, also in Ottawa.

In December of 2011, Richard Holt (2001-2) successfully defended his PhD. His dissertation is entitled "Filling the Ranks: Recruiting, Training and Reinforcements in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918."

Congratulations to Jordan Goldstein (2009-10) who will begin his PhD in Kinesiology at Western in the fall of 2012, and to Adair Harper (2010-11), who has been hired as an Exhibits Assistant at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England.

Congratulations to Craig Capacchione (2010-11) who has been hired as an archival collections assistant at the Kitchener Public Library, Jennifer Nelson (2010-11) who has been hired as a Heritage Assistant at Uncle Tom's Cabin, to Annique Sanche (2010-11) who is now employed by the Georgian Bay Islands National Park, to Joanna Dawson (2010-11), the new Community Engagement Coordinator for Canada's National History Society, to Michelle Goodridge (2010-11), who won a YCW Building Careers in Heritage placement at the University of Guelph archives, to Pamela Pal (2010-11), the new museum educator at the Markham Museum, and to Terran Fader (2010-11), recently hired by Fanshawe Pioneer Village.

Congratulations to Jennifer Levin-Bonder (2010-11) who will begin her PhD at the University of Toronto.

Sara Sirianni (2009-10) is an Executive Assistant at the National Soaring Museum in Elmira, New York.

Shelagh Staunton (2009-10) will begin an MLIS degree in the fall of 2011.

Congratulations to Dana Johnson (2009-10) who will start her new job as Historian at the Lambton County Room in the new year.

Tasha DiLoreto (2009-10) was recently hired as a Library Assistant at the London Public Library.

Braden Murray (2009-10) is the new Museum Educator for the Lake of the Woods Museum in Kenora, Ontario.

Andrea Melvin (2007-08) is currently working as the Collections Registrar for Grand Rapids Public Museum.

Kalyna Klymkiw (2008-09) recently finished a contract at Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. As a Design Consultant, Kalyna conducted research, curated and installed an exhibit on nineteenth-century photography and portrait studios. She is now working on contract for a private company to develop an exhibit about the historic house from which this business operates.

Melissa Robinson (2008-09) is working as the Business Development Coordinator for the North American Railway Hall of Fame in St. Thomas.

Sophie Malek (2008-09) has recently accepted a Young Canada Works position as a Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Health Care in Kingston.

Congratulations to Sarah Maloney (2008-09), the new Managing Director of the Niagara Historical Museum, Meaghan Nelligan (2008-09), now a Heritage Consultant with Golder Associates, London, Krista McCracken (2008-09), Archives Technician for the Residential School Centre/Shingwauk Project, at Algoma University, and Nana Robinette (2007-08), a new archivist at the Archives of Ontario.

Helen Button (2007-08) begins law school at Western in the fall of 2010.

Sarah Maloney (2008-09) is working as the Registrar for the Port Colborne Historical Museum and is also the Project Coordinator for the Niagara Historical Society and Museum for a new project called "Niagara on the Eve of War."

David Rodger (2008-09) is the new Internet Content and New Media Officer for Parks Canada for Western Newfoundland and Labrador.

Lois Fenton (2008-09) recently began working at the Ailsa Craig and District Historical Society and Museum.

Krista McCracken (2008-09) is a Digitization Facilitator for Knowledge Ontario, working on the Our Ontario project. She will be working in various communities in the near-North and North Shore region of Ontario to establish sustainable digitization programs in libraries, museums, and archives. This includes policy development, promotion, hiring, training, and program evaluation, among other things. Krista will be also continuing her blog at http://krista-mccracken. blogspot.com/.

Sarah Maloney (2008-09) has just finished working for Brock University as a Digitization Assistant in the Special Collections of the Library, for the "1812 Online" project dedicated to the commemoration of the Bicentennial in 2012. Its aim is to create accessibility to Niagara's 1812 artifacts and archival documents so that researchers, and in particular, the District School Board of Niagara, can access them for curriculum and research purposes. She digitized the 1812 collections of six museums within the Niagara Region: the Lundy's Lane Museum, Niagara Historical Society and Museum, the Grimsby Museum, Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum, Jordan Historical Museum and Brock University's Special Collections. The project will be accessible through the OurOntario.ca website.

Natalie Dyck (2008-09) accepted a job at Library and Archives Canada, as Project Officer, Government Operations Divisions, Recordkeeping, Planning and Liaison office, after her completing her summer internship there.

Meaghan Nelligan (2008-09) finished in the fall of 2009 a London Heritage Council grant to digitize and document the photographic archives of the former Archival and Teaching Museum of Regional Mental Health Care. She is now the Heritage Coordinator for the London Heritage Council.

Melissa Robinson (2008-09) continues to work for the Promised Land Project after her internship. The project studies and documents the role and evolution of the early black settlements in southwestern Ontario area by building a comprehensive database of letters and journals, journals, photographs, oral histories and newspapers, among other sources. For information see http://lamacs.arts.uottawa.ca/index.htm.

In 2009, Heather George (2008-09) worked for the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology on an oral history project documenting the Hamilton Waterworks. Her exhibit and video Water is Life: Keeping Hamilton Alive for 150 Years which celebrates the anniversary of the Hamilton waterworks opened October 21, 2009, and will be on display until August of 2010. She is now a Historical Interpreter for the City of Hamilton Museums.

Nana Robinette (2007-08) recently had the pleasure of working with the Margaret Sanger Papers Project at New York University. During her fall internship, she conducted research for the fourth volume of the Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger: Round the World for Birth Control, 1920-1966. The research focused on Sanger's personal correspondence, the status of birth control in the United Kingdom, and the interactions between national and international organizations working in the fields of birth control and population control. She is now a researcher for Heritage Toronto.

Andrea Melvin (2007-08) has recently finished a contract to research and write for the upcoming exhibit The Confederation Generation: Canadian Dress, 1840-1890, an online exhibit by the Canadian Museum of Civilization. This exhibit will explore how a cross-section of nineteenth century Canadians presented themselves through the clothes they chose to wear, and accompanies a large scale digitization of approximately 350 nineteenth-century Canadian garments in CMC's collection. The Confederation Generation is expected to be available online in 2009. She begins a new research project for CMC in January called The Pregnancy Exposed Dress Project.

Sarah Ferencz (2007-08) worked in the Building Careers in Heritage Program for the Canadian Museums Association. As a Heritage Pictorial Technician at Puke Ariki and District Libraries in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Sarah was responsible for cataloguing and researching the museum's photographs that relate to the New Zealand Land Wars of the 1860-80s, and helped to plan a major 2010 exhibit that will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the commencement of the Land Wars in New Plymouth. Her work has been featured in the New Zealand press. She is currently working as a digital image technician for the Whitby Library and Archives.

After completing his internship at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in Virginia, Adam Crymble (2007-08) became the webmaster for NiCHE, the Network in Canadian History & Environment. The job puts into practice much of what he learned in Bill Turkel’s Digital History course. Since joining NiCHE, Adam has worked with scholars from across Canada and has been involved in creating podcasts, video, web design and print. You can take a look at his work at http://niche.uwo.ca. He blogs at Thoughts on Public and Digital History. In the fall of 2010, he began a PhD at King’s College, London, England.

Helen Button (2007-08) recently published “A Taste of the Past: Fanshawe Pioneer Village,” in London’s EatDrink magazine. Read the full article here. between electronic pages 14-17. She is currently employed as a Public Relations Coordinator with ON Communication in London, working with non-profit groups, health-care clients and grass-roots agricultural initiatives.

Sarah Waugh (2007-08) was hired at the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center in Seattle after she completed her internship at the same institution. She is now volunteering for the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, designing exhibits for their new museum opening in 2012. She is also working at the Experience Music Project, putting together educator resources including artifact Discovery Kits and recorded oral histories.

After her internship at Library and Archives Canada, Rebecca Giesbrecht (2007-08) has been hired as a permanent Archivist for the Industry Canada portfolio in the Government Records Branch. This branch manages all federal government records, and sets protocols for the transferring of records and public accessibility.

Devon Elliott (2007-08) is a PhD student in the Department of History at UWO, where he is writing a dissertation on the history of stage magic. He blogs at History Experiments.

After working at Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Molly MacDonald (2006-07) has recently accepted a position at the Dawson City Museum.

Joel Ralph (2005-06) held his internship at Canada’s National History Society, and is now its Manager of Education and Outreach Programs. Check out his blog on Digital History Education.

Rollen Lee (2004-05) is currently employed by School District #22 in Vernon. In addition to his work as a high school teacher, he is also involved in high school theatre and is developing a high school class on heritage. He finds that his methods and outlook for high school teaching are more theoretical and critical because of his graduate work.

Phil Gold (2004-05) is the Archivist at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and has been actively involved in public history projects related to the history of the hospital. He also works as an Adult Services Librarian at a public library in Vaughan and as a reference librarian at York University.

Sally Robinson (1996-97) has been a private contractor in museum exhibit design and research and a Historic Sites Interpretive Planner for the Yukon Government. She continues to work for the Yukon government, focusing on interpretive signage on Yukon travel corridors, and tourism with the territory, especially at Fort Selkirk. In 2009, she is working with Parks Canada and a community Centennial Society in Dawson City on trails and interpretation on the Klondike Gold Rush Discovery Claim. Her work can be seen at www.yukonheritage.com/Sign/ and www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/FortSelkirk/ english/index.html

Where Are They Now?

2011

Annique Sanche - Georgian Bay Islands National Park
Jen Levin-Bonder - PhD Student, University of Toronto
Michelle Goodridge - University of Guelph Archives
Luvneet Rana - Digital Archivist, University of Michigan
Caitlin Dyer - National Ballet of Canada Archives
Pamela Pal - Markham Museum
Joanna Dawson - Canada's History Society
Brent Wiancko - Ancestry.com
Adair Harper - Victoria and Albert Museum, England
Sarah Bennett - Canadian Museum of Civilization
Craig Capacchione - Kitchener Public Library

2010

Tasha DiLoreto - London Public Library
Braden Murray - Lake of the Woods Museum, Kenora
Dana Johnson - Historian, Lambton County Room
Sara Sirianni - House of the Good Shepherd, NY
Megan Arnott - Information Officer, Legislative Assembly, Toronto
Jordan Goldstein - Collections Manager, JP Metras Museum, UWO
Tim O'Grady - Archivist, Edmonton

2009

David Rodger – Parks Canada, Newfoundland
Lois Fenton - Joan Holmes and Associates, Ottawa
Meaghan Nelligan - Heritage Consultant, Golder Associates, London
Heather George - Interpreter, Hamilton Museums
Meila Ma - PhD Candidate, UWO
Ruthann Lablance - Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto
Jenna Leifso - Huron County Archives
Natalie Dyck - Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa
Sarah Maloney - Managing Director, Niagara Historical Museum
Krista McCracken - University of Algoma Archives
Vicky Tran – Communications Coordinator, AldrichPears Associates, Vancouver
Sophie Malek - Curatorial Assistant, Cataloguing and Digitization, Museum of Health Care, Kingston

2008

Nana Robinette - Archives of Ontario, Toronto
Sarah Ferencz - Archives of Ontario, Toronto
Adam Crymble - Candidate, University of King's College, London, England
Helen Button - Law school, UWO
Devon Elliott - Phd Candidate, UWO
Carrie Lunde - Communications Manager, Alberta Museums Association
Rebecca Giesbrecht - Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa
Andrea Melvin - Registrar, Grand Rapids Museum
Corey Everett - Archivist, Town of Markham

2007

Kristine Williamson - Research Consultant, Lord Cultural Resources; Educational Programmer, Spadina House Museum; Youth Programmer, Mackenzie House, Toronto
Carling Marshall Luymes - History Group, Ottawa
Molly Macdonald - Dawson City Museum, Yukon
Alex Pitt - Case Coordinator, Conservation Review Board, Ontario Government
Diana Dicklich - Fanshawe Pioneer Village, London
Jeremy Sandor - Teacher and Curriculum Designer

2006

Tim Compeau - PhD Candidate, UWO
Joel Ralph - Manager of Education & Outreach Programs, Canada’s History Society, Winnipeg
Laura Hernandez - Public History Inc., Ottawa
Karrell Pfeiffer - Historical Event Coordinator, Toronto Regional Conservation Authority

2005

Phil Gold - Archivist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre;Librarian, York University and Vaughn Public Library
Anne Sayeau - Archivist, TD Bank
Eliana Busheikin - Program Coordinator, Historica-Dominion Institute, Toronto
Rollen Lee - Teacher, BC

2004

Erin Semande - Researcher, Ontario Heritage Trust
Jaclyn Smith-Wilson - Professor of English and History, Fanshawe College

2003

Joel Campbell - Teacher, Ontario
Kara Brown - History Department, UWO
Shannon LaBelle - Librarian, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre; Research Manager, Museum of Anthropology

2001

Tammy Coleman - Teacher, Ontario
Amy Mirrlees - Teacher, Ontario
Kit Frost - Manager, Interpretation & Evaluation Program, Library of Parliament

2000

Eric Sheppard - Public History Inc.

1999

Alison DeMuy - Director of Partnerships, Centre for International Governance
Innovation

1998

Ken Hernden - Director, Library Services, Algoma University
Krista Cooke - Assistant Curator, History, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Heather Ryckman - Archivist, The Co-operators, Guelph

1997

Claire Campbell - Associate Professor, Dalhousie University
Mike Dove - Adjunct Professor and Public History Internship Coordinator, UWO
Michelle Hamilton - Director of Public History, UWO
Sally Robinson - Parks Canada, Yukon
Sean Stoyles - Senior Researcher, CDCI, Ottawa
Sandy Bruce - Lawyer, Ontario

1996

Rita Russell - Todmorden Mills Museum

1995

Jennifer Payne - Writer, Toronto
Steve Mavers - Curator of Education, Eldon House, London
Kim Shipp - Parks Canada, Newfoundland

1993

Scott Calbeck - President, Smoke Lake Productions

1992

Catherine Elliott-Shaw - Curator, McIntosh Gallery, UWO

1991

Mark Greenberg - Director & Associate Librarian, Special & Digital Collections, University of South Florida
Crispin Shaftoe - Professor of Public Policy, Niagara College

1990

Hartmann, Alexandra - Uxbridge Public Library
Kevin Nixon - Assistant Negotiator, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development

1989

Martina Hardwick - Adjunct Professor, Queens University

1988

Meg Stanley - Historian, Parks Canada, Calgary