Veteran Professional seeks new opportunity

[Benjamen_Salata]

Headline: Veteran Professional seeks new opportunity
Name: Benjamen Salata
Email Address: benjamensalata@gmail.com
Current Location: Columbus, GA

Preferred Job Category: Administration

Personal Statement:
Possess ability to communicate, influence, and persuade. Strong organizational and administrative skills. Experience in fast growing business. Ability to develop and operate multiple tasks.

Organized numerous civic events and activities. Experience with administration duties and responsibilities of non-profit corporations. Strong research skills and collections management. Knowledge of stabilization and proper storage techniques of historical objects, textiles, photographs, and archival materials.

Unwavering interest in historic preservation. Familiar with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and guidelines for restoration of historic buildings. Special interests in the practice of Public History. Specific interest in living history; with a primary focus on 20th century.

Proficient in community outreach, public speaking, and legislative lobbying. Ability to communicate historical and material culture to wide variety of social-economic classes.

Education:
M.A. Savannah College of Art and Design
Historic Preservation - 2006
Artistic Honors Fellowship, Distance Learning
B.A. Florida Atlantic University
History- 1998
Phi Alpha Theta
Credited Workshops: Tax Aspects of Historic Preservation, Preservation Incentives, Diggin It: Archaeological Conservation, New Section 106 Rules

Professional Experience:
Director of Heritage Education, The Historic Columbus Foundation
Columbus, GA 06/2005- 09/2008


Heritage Education- Developed and conducted educational programs & tours for school-age children – at heritage corner and in the classroom. Developed and conducted educational programs for adults–lunch and lecture series. Distributed “Our Town” educational materials each year. Administered annual Patti Jackson Howard Scholarship process. Promoted Young Historian clubs at local high schools and coordinated with existing Young Historian clubs for collaborative projects. Organized summer day camps for membership and non-profit children’s organizations. Produced teacher training and certification programs each summer. Procured grants for educational programs.

Heritage Tourism- Promoted all group tours, special tours and school tours with Director of Marketing. Booked all group tours, special tours and school tours. Conducted daily Heritage Corner Tours, school tours and collaborative (multi-institutional) tours. Maintained professional networks with other museums for heritage tours and living history. Coordinated and trained docents for Heritage Corner and school tours.

Heritage Corner & Rankin House Development- Assisted hired consultants to produce programmatic improvements for Heritage Corner & Rankin House.

Multi-Media Development -Developed and maintained HCF website. Produced HCF newsletter. Curated digital imagery of all events and projects. Produced all invitations, flyers and needed print materials. Created and produce the Park News for neighborhood preservation society.

Visitor Services Manager, The National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus
Columbus, GA. 08/2003-06/2005

Supervisory administrative position. Main responsibilities include: museum store marketing and merchandising, supervising, training and scheduling visitor services staff, customer service, inventory control, and general retail operations. Responsible for a 28% increase in revenues producing sales over $100,000 in first fiscal year.

Assisted with multiple special events. Participated in living history programs and assisted with loading and firing museum’s naval artillery. Appeared as living history character for programming, media, and off-site museum promotions.


Curator, The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum
North Hutchinson Island, FL. 03/2001- 06/2003

Responsible for compiling, organizing and interpreting the histories of Scout and Raider Units, Naval Combat Demolition Units, Underwater Demolition Teams, Sea, Air, and Land Teams (SEALs), and other elements of Naval Special Warfare. Designed and constructed written and photo archives, stabilized primary documents and textiles, designed and constructed artifact storage facilities.

Wrote and presented top-ranking educational exhibit Grant for WW II exhibit. The 1000 sqft was exhibit completed in summer 2003 for a total sum of $134,000.

Supervised design and development of permanent exhibits. Served as superintendent of explosives (inert), weapons (class 3), and other sensitive military materials. Supervised maintenance of exterior exhibits (boats, special watercraft, space capsules and helicopter). Served as public lead historical interpreter and volunteer coordinator. Added to existing oral history program and initiated oral history exchange program.

Curator, Depot Museum, City of Lake Wales - Lake Wales Historical Society
Lake Wales, FL. 01/2000- 02/2001

Designed and installed temporary exhibits, maintained permanent exhibits, supervised collection care and storage, stabilized artifacts. Provided local civic speaking engagements and scholastic education. Designed excel-based collection files and museum documentation forms. Provided marketing and membership strategies by writing membership newsletters, of media releases, and civic networking. Assisted with museum rail car conservation, and grants for historic structures. Compiled local histories, folklore and genealogy for citizens. Organizer of Pioneer Days civic festival.

Librarian, Palm Beach County Library
Boca Raton, FL. 09/1998-12/1999

Library Associate II, Southwest County Regional Library. Direct patron related services. Collection management, inter-branch and inter-library collection applications. Collection care and storage. Designed and implemented adult education programs on Florida History. Instructed weekly classes for senior citizens on basic and advanced internet training.

Student Intern, The Loxahatchee River Historical Museum
Jupiter Inlet Colony, FL. 06/1997-08/1998

Applicable Skills:
Computer skills: MS office, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator, Dreamweaver. Past Perfect Software. AutoCAD. Ability to design and implement systems of storage for and retrieval of photo and written artifacts. Proficient in web design.

Other:
American Association of Museums, Phi Alpha Theta, AASLH, National Trust for Historic Preservation.