2024 Conference Speakers

Angela Demma is a curator and arts advocate who lives and works on Dena’na homelands in and around Anchorage, Alaska. She is currently working at the Alaska Native Heritage Center as the Curator of Collections and Exhibits. She has also held curatorial positions at the Anchorage Museum, Alaska Native Arts Foundation, the Municipality of Anchorage, and she taught Alaska Native Art History at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She’s worked in cultural non-profits in Alaska for more than 20 years.

Her arts advocacy work is currently focused on administering programs for Alaska Native PLACE (providing living artists creative environments), a grassroots group of Alaska Native artists creating opportunities and community in Anchorage.

Bob “CJ” Curtis-Johnson is the owner and principal consultant of SummitDay LLC, who specialize in audiovisual media preservation across Alaska and other collections around the US. His 40+ year career has encompassed work in preservation and digitization planning, storage environments, collection assessment, marketing, and as an editor, producer, and director of documentaries, commercials, and artistic and sponsored films. He has volunteered with the ISO, the Association of Moving Image Archivists, and numerous arts organizations and non-profits.

John Hagen (he/him) is the Curator of Indigenous Art and Initiatives at the Anchorage Museum. He furthers the Museum’s work with Alaska’s living cultures, with an emphasis on Indigenous art, artists, climate change, national and international connections, and other initiatives. Hagen is Iñupiaq, Unangax̂, Irish and Danish. Hagen was born in Sitka and raised in Haines, where he began to work in adult education at cultural institutions. Hagen fishes for salmon and incorporates ancestral knowledge into his curatorial practice.

Lisa Sasaki is currently the deputy under secretary for special projects, where she provides leadership to the Institution as it plays a key role in America’s semiquincentennial celebration and in efforts that cut across organizational lines to maximize the Smithsonian’s impact, not only in Washington, DC, but also online and in communities across the country.

Previously, Sasaki was appointed the interim director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in March 2021 and served in that role until 2023. She also served as the director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Sasaki has worked in the museum field for more than 25 years for organizations like the Oakland Museum of California, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

She has provided further service to the field as President of the Western Museums Association’s Board of Directors and as a member of AAM’s Facing Change working group, the Center for the Future of Museum’s Horizon Initiative steering committee, and the Advisory Council for the Council of Jewish American Museums.

Margaret is a museum collections professional in Kodiak, AK. She completed her master’s degree in Museology with a certificate in program evaluation at the University of Washington and has over 9 years of experience working in both contemporary art and history collections. She is currently the Chief Curator at the Kodiak History Museum and has been with the organization for 6 years.

Gregory Stewart serves as the Director of Grants for the Alaska Native Heritage Center. His background is comprised of several experiences across the fields of law, accounting, media, and hospitality. He has a Master’s in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism from the New School for Social Research in New York City, and a Bachelor’s Degree in English and History from SUNY Geneseo in upstate New York. Originally from Long Island, NY, he moved to Anchorage in 2019 after a brief internship in the summer of 2018 with the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. He is a dedicated fundraiser and project manager who oversees a variety of efforts that seek to preserve and strengthen the traditions, languages, and arts of Alaska Native peoples through statewide collaboration, celebration, and education.

Gina Agron is a Health Consultant with the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Consultation and Training (AKOSH C&T) Sectionin the State of Alaska’s Labor Standards and Safety Division. She has managed environmental, safety, and health programs. She obtained her MS in Public Health (industrial hygiene and environmental management) from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, MBA with a concentration in Health Services Administration from Alaska Pacific University, and BS in Biology from Fayetteville State University. Gina is a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Museum & Cultural Heritage Industry Working Group and represents Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Consultation and Training (AKOSH C&T) on the OSHA On-Site Consultation Museum & Cultural Heritage Industry Working Group.

Rachel Boesenberg (she/her) is Assistant Curator at the Anchorage Museum. Recent exhibitions include How to Survive, Lines of Sight: Comic Art and Storytelling in Alaska, and Trailing. Born and raised on Dena’ina Ełnena in Anchorage, she returned home in 2022 after a decade in Boston where she held positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Design Museum Everywhere.

Djuna Davidson is the Director of Advancement at the Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository in Kodiak. She has worked with the museum for six years, managing the development department, overseeing human resources, and supervising the museum store staff. Djuna was born and raised in Kodiak, leaving at 17 to attend The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from The University of Washington and has worked in the nonprofit world for the past 13 years. When not investing time in her incredibly cool job, Djuna volunteers on the Kodiak Arts Council Board of Directors as the board secretary, plans community events in both Kodiak and Olympia, and reads as many books as she possibly can.

Mary Irvine is Curator of Statewide Services, a position with the Alaska State Museum. The position provides support to museums statewide. She coordinates the Grant-In-Aid program which provides financial support for projects and development of museums statewide. She also works with the State Historic Preservation Office on the administration of the new Maritime Heritage Preservation Program, which provides grant support for maritime projects statewide.

Her first 30 years with the museum were in the Visitor Services, Education and Interpretation, and Museum Security section. She studied philosophy and structural linguistics at Boston University and holds a law degree from a small school in Portland, Oregon.

Amanda is a museum professional working at the Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological
Repository in Kodiak, AK. She holds a masters’ degree in history from Texas Tech
University, with a graduate certificate in Museum Studies. She joined the Alutiiq
Museum’s staff in 2017 and has expertise in collections management,
NAGPRA/repatriation, museum policies, copyright & intellectual property, and facility
management.

Brandy Howard, PE, CIH, CSP, is the group manager of industrial hygiene and asbestos at Terracon’s Denver office. Howard works with clients in various industries to deliver cost-effective environmental, health, and safety solutions to support their operations. Howard currently serves as secretary for the AIHA Museums and Cultural Heritage Industry Working Group and was a research partner on the Museum Poisons Test Kit project.

Alex Taitt (she/her) is an Assistant Curator, Digital Content & Programs at the Anchorage Museum and Ph.D. Student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks studying digital heritage preservation. Alex has a background in anthropology, computer science and museum studies, and has worked in education, public programming, heritage preservation, and curatorial work in the museum field. She lives and works on Dena’ina Ełnena in Anchorage, Alaska.

Kerith Koss Schrager is an objects conservator who specializes in hazardous collections and occupational health and safety for cultural heritage workers. She completed an M.S. in Environmental Health Sciences through the Division of Environmental Medicine at NYU Langone Health in 2022. Kerith graduated from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University with an M.A in Art History and Advanced Certificate in Conservation in 2007 and now serves as adjunct faculty. She is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), former Chair of their Health & Safety Network, and former Chair of the Conservators in Private Practice (CIPP) Specialty Group as well as a founding member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s Museum and Cultural Heritage Industry (M&CHI) Working Group.

Ana Cristina is a project manager at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, in Skagway, AK. Garcia joined KLGO in 2022 as a NCPE intern. Currently she leads the Rapuzzi Ship Manifest Conservation Project since 2023. As a project leader she has recruited interns, developed daily workflows and processed around 3,000 historic documents with assistance of her team. With a background in art conservation and prior to join the National Park Service, Garcia participated in various conservation projects across Mexico and Germany, were she had the opportunity to work with pieces from the National Museum of Anthropology, National Museum of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and The Egyptian Museum -Georg Steindorff- of the University of Leipzig. When she’s not surrounded by historical objects and documents, she is riding the sidecar motorcycle or hiking the trails around Skagway.

Dr. Patrick Druckenmiller is Director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and Professor of Geology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Pat began his career at the UA Museum in 2007 as the Earth Sciences Curator, and he continues to conduct field-based research on dinosaurs across Alaska. In 2018 he became museum director. He oversees the state’s largest teaching and research museum that houses 2.5 million objects focusing on the cultural and natural history of the North and welcomes up to 90,000 visitors annually.

Christine Carpenter is passionate about museums. As a designer, artist, and project manager, Christine uses her skills to work collaboratively with museums to find opportunities and limit challenges. After completing her MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning & Design, she relocated to Juneau to work with the exhibit design firm, ExhibitAK, and is now one of the owners. In collaboration with the communities she serves, she has designed exhibits, websites, interpretive panels, and master plans all over the state.

Stephanie Black is the Conservator at the Anchorage Museum in Anchorage, Alaska, and Vice Chair/incoming Chair of the American Institute of Conservation’s Health and Safety Network. She specializes in the conservation and care of archaeological, indigenous and world cultures, and natural history collections. Her areas of interest are in collaborative conservation and collections care, laboratory health and safety, mental health in the workplace, and conservation education. Stephanie previously worked as an Assistant Conservator at the Field Museum on the Native North American Hall Renovation Project (https://www.fieldmuseum.org/exhibitions/native-truths-our-voices-our-stories), and at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (formerly the Oriental Institute) on their Gallery Enhancement Project, both in Chicago, Illinois. She also worked as an objects’ conservator and laboratory technician for the MSc Conservation Studies program offered at University College London Qatar in Doha, Qatar. Stephanie holds a MSc in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums and a MA in Principles of Conservation from University College London in the United Kingdom, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Art Conservation and Art History from the University of Delaware.