Project

Appointed as Program Manager for Cultural Disaster Analysis, Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative

Program

Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows

PhD field of study

PhD, Ethnomusicology, University of California, Riverside

Position Description

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex with 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, and numerous education and research centers. Established in 2012, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI) represents a national and international effort to ensure that cultural heritage survives natural disasters and human conflicts and remains as a resource for civic and economic well-being. The Program Manager for Cultural Disaster Analysis monitors, organizes, coordinates, and evaluates program implementation, operations, and administration to meet the needs of cultural heritage organizations working on response. S/he has a vital role in providing data in an accessible form to SCRI leadership, collaborators, and other stakeholders, and participates in the two research consortia to which SCRI belongs, catalyzing research and education programs with them based on SCRI’s work. Working with SCRI’s extensive response network, the program manager interacts daily with cultural heritage stewards and emergency managers in the public and private sector. The program manager will develop skills in damage assessment, rapid documentation, emergency evacuation, salvage and rehousing, geospatial information, crowdsourcing as a damage information tool, responder training, crisis communication, team building, and organizational development.