» Volunteering in the Division of Paleontology
Volunteering in the Division of Paleontology
The Division of Paleontology has many dedicated volunteers. If you're interested in volunteering for us, please visit the Volunteer Opportunities page on the AMNH public website.
Meet some of our volunteers...
Priscilla has volunteered at the AMNH since September 2000 in both the Butterfly Vivarium and the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology.
She has a B.A. from Carleton College and a M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Priscilla spent two years in Côte d’Ivoire with the Peace Corps from 1962-1964 and worked from 1968 to 2000 for the New York office of the American University in Cairo, assisting American faculty and student recruiting and in office management.
Since 2000, Priscilla has also volunteered her time as a docent at the Central Park Zoo.
Donna has enjoyed working at the AMNH for over fifteen years. She is currently an assistant to the manager of Live Exhibits, caring for butterflies, frogs, sugar gliders and silkworms, and volunteers in the Department of Mammalogy, working on the dry bat collection. She has also volunteered at the Information Desk in the Museum. In 2007, Donna began volunteering in Vertebrate Paleontology where she has worked on the Type Re-housing and Perissodactyl project, using her attention to detail, dependability and knowledge of collection care to great effect.
Julia Carlson has been volunteering for the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology since May 2009 working on aspects of the Type Re-housing and Perissodactyl grant. She has conducted a painstaking inventory of the fossil mammal type specimens and removed non-archival materials from the collection, replacing them with archival quality materials.
Julia has a background in art handling and also volunteers for the Metropolitan Museum in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department. Currently she is working towards a Masters Degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Fashion and Textile Studies with a concentration in Textile Conservation and hopes to work in the field when she graduates in May 2010.
Dr. Conway first volunteered at AMNH in the Malacology collection of the Department of Invertebrates from February 2005 to May 2006. Her work there included cataloging the wet collection and other specimens, and rehousing specimens.
Mary began volunteering in The Department of Invertebrate Paleontology in June 2006. She catalogues and curates non-type specimens and has been involved in moving and organizing sections of the collection.
Mary has a B.A. from Carleton College and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley. In real life, she worked for over 20 years with John Wiley & Sons, where her most recent post was an executive editor for life science advanced texts and references. Mary also worked for over 10 years with C&P Press, as executive editor for technical references and databases, both print and electronic.
Joe has a degree in engineering and an M.S. from Long Island University. He began volunteering at the AMNH in 1999, after his retirement from Verizon. Joe works on data entry for the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology and also volunteers his time at the New York Botanical Garden.
Volunteer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Andrew began volunteering at the American Museum of Natural History in 1999. Since then he has been able to take advantage of the some of the diverse opportunities a large science museum offers. For the Volunteer department he’s been an Earth & Space Explainer, a Tour Guide, a Fossil Explainer, and taken on other assorted assignments. For the Education department he’s worked as a classroom assistant, an explainer in temporary exhibits such as Einstein, Exploratorium, Dinosaurs, and Darwin, and has done occasional other jobs. For the Exhibition department he has helped make leaves and other botanicals as well as assisted with research and other tasks. He has given tours and provided other help for the Membership department. In addition to that long list, Andrew also volunteers his time for the AMNH Library.
In 2007, Andrew began working in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology. He has made a significant contribution to the Type Re-housing and Perissodactyl grant, working tirelessly on building mounts for large specimens, entering element descriptions for the database, removing non-archival materials from the collections and replacing them with archival quality storage materials.
In real life, Mr. Epstein worked as an Air Traffic Controller for almost twenty-four years before retiring in 2006.
Susan J. Hewitt is a naturalist in the British tradition. She has been on the volunteer staff at AMNH since the year 2000, spending seven years working in the malacology section of Invertebrate Zoology, where she was awarded Field Associate status from 2006 to 2008. When the malacology section became inactive in 2007, she moved to Invertebrate Paleontology so she could continue working with mollusks, in the fossil record. Susan previously had a position at the Harvard MCZ for 2 years in malacology, and taught a college seminar on mollusks at Yale. She has over 20 scientific publications, and is actively involved in field research in the Leeward Islands, West Indies. Susan is currently writing several papers on the marine mollusks of that area. She is also very active in WikiProject Gastropods, which is part of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Susan was born and grew up in Kent, England, just a few miles from Charles Darwin’s “Down House”, which she visited many times as a child. On one visit she was even allowed to play Darwin’s piano!
Susan was born and grew up in Kent, England, just a few miles from Charles Darwin’s “Down House”, which she visited many times as a child. On one visit she was even allowed to play Darwin’s piano!
Jim retired from teaching science after 34 years, 22 as Department Chairperson at Miller Place H.S. on Long Island. He and his wife then established a vacation home in Ojai, CA, near Santa Barbara, which they visit in winter and summer. In 1995 Jim began volunteering at AMNH, designing the Volunteer Newsletter, working in Exhibits and later in Vertebrate Paleontology. Over the years he worked his way up and is now a fossil preparator. Jim continues to do a Volunteer Newsletter at The Morgan Library and Museum. He designs websites and has worked in a number of artistic endeavors including jewelry making, stained glass, pottery, architecture, marquetry, and currently digital photography. Jim and his wife travel extensively.
Susan has a BA from SUNY, New Paltz and an MS in Library Science from CUNY, Queens College. She retired in 2009 from Sony Electronics Inc, where she worked in legal administration. Currently, she works part-time as a Reference Librarian at the New Jersey Public Library in Franklin Lakes.
Susan began volunteering in Vertebrate Paleontology in October, 2009 where she puts her training and skills to good use cataloging acquisitions in the online library database.
Jessica started her AMNH career as an intern in Science Bulletins in 2005.
After two years there, she was hired by Live Exhibits, where she still works, spending the majority of her time looking after butterflies and frogs.
She has been volunteering in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology since 2008. She has been working on curating a section of specimens collected by Malcolm McKenna.
When not at the museum, Jessica spends her time inventing new ways to create a sense of wonder in the world. She just finished her first feature film, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. Jessica is currently in production on several animated science shows, building her own museum exhibition, and research for her next feature film.
At Radcliffe, where Peggy met her husband Bill, she majored in English, which she says, doesn’t prepare you for a career but does lead to an enjoyable life after college. They moved to New York City, and raised their two children in Brooklyn Heights.
Peggy is a librarian by trade and by inclination, and for many years worked for the organization currently named JPMorgan Chase. Since retiring she has enjoyed volunteering at the New Lebanon (NY) Public Library, the American Museum of Natural History Osborn Library, and the Kendal on Hudson Library.
She and Bill now divide their time between the home they built in Columbia County and their apartment at Kendal on Hudson, a retirement community in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County. She is active in Old Chatham Quaker Meeting and she and her husband both enjoy the many benefits of New York City, including proximity to their two grandchildren.
Alicea has been volunteering in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology since June 2009. She has conducted an inventory of type specimens and entered storage information on the database. She is currently working on the challenging task of re-housing type specimens.
Alicea has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and she plans on returning to school to study for a Master's degree in Library Sciences. She describes herself as “a mega geek” when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy and enjoys going to Broadway whenever she has the opportunity.
Marion has a B.S. in Education from Hunter College, CUNY, an M.S. in reading Disabilities from City College, CUNY and an M.S. in Special Education from Hunter College, CUNY. She worked as an elementary school educator, specifically in the area of special education from 1974-1991.
Marion began volunteering in the AMNH in 2000 where she worked in the Department of Invertebrates wet collection – cleaning specimens and refilling jars of alcohol specimens. Later, she began working in the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology where she has had many responsibilities, including cleaning Gastropod and Brachiopod fossils. She currently works entering information about the non-type Brachiopod specimens in the database.
Linda has a BFA from the Art Institue of Chicago and worked for over 30 years in the fashion industry.
She has volunteered at the AMNH since 1999, first as a Fossil Explainer on the 4th floor and now mainly as a tour guide for highlights tours, training sessions and special exhibitions. She also worked on research projects for the renovation of the Hall of Ocean Life and had the pleasure of making Ginko leaves and Stag Horn coral in the Exhibition department.
Linda began volunteering in the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology around 2001, beginning by handling tiny little fossils and writing tiny little numbers on them (she says that her art training helped a lot!). She was also part of the volunteer team who worked on the digital imaging project for fossil invertebrate specimens. She later worked on the Type Collection of fossil invertebrates, doing data entry and making sure that the specimens were properly labeled and stored. Currently, Linda is working on the preservation of the Foram collection.
Linda says that that she finds her volunteer work in Invertebrate Paleontology rewarding and fun and that it has added another dimension of valuable information to all her other volunteer jobs in the museum.
Volunteer, Vertebrate Paleontology
