Looking to add to over 5 years of collections experience!

[IntellectualControl]

Headline: Looking to add to over 5 years of collections experience!
Name: Amy C. Smith
Email Address: havoc127@vt.edu
Current Location: Blacksburg, VA, USA

Preferred Job Category: Curator

Personal Statement:
My objectives are to perform research, outreach, curation, collections management, and/or overall maintenance at a museum, university, or other institution.

Education:
Doctorate of Philosophy, Geology (Vertebrate Paleontology), expected 2011 (ABD)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT), VA
Dissertation: Description of Tanytrachelos ahynis and its implications for phylogenetic placement of Protorosauria among the archosauromorphs

Master of Science, Geology (Vertebrate Paleontology), 2007
Michigan State University (MSU)
Thesis: Implications of Claw Morphology for Possible Aquatic Locomotion in Pteranodon.

Bachelor of Arts, Geology, 2003
University of Rochester (UR), NY

Associate of Arts, Science, 2000
Bucks County Community College (BCCC), PA

Professional Experience:
Virginia Tech Museum of Geosciences Curation and Outreach Assistant, VT
August 2008 – present
•Catalog, organize, rehouse, and repair invertebrate and vertebrate fossil, rock, and mineral collections and donations
•Create, reorganize, update, index, and summarize in brochures educational kits
•Lead workshops, give guest lectures, identify specimens, and assist in open house events
•Facilitate loans and returns of educational kits and museum specimens, as well as loans and returns of kits and specimens from the biology outreach department
•Design museum literatures, interpretive signage, and conference posters (portfolio available upon request)
•Update, maintain, and create pages on the museum website
•Create, take down for storage, adjust and maintain museum exhibits (permanent and temporary)
•Assist in training new graduate assistants
•Update and maintain specimen catalog database in Superbase
•Write a grant proposal for Collections Stewardship to IMLS
•Update and maintain museum safety standards and practices

Teaching Assistant/Lab Instructor of Paleontology, GEOS3604, VT
January 2009 – May 2009
•Taught Micropaleontology, Ichnology, and Vertebrate paleontology
•Responsibilities included giving lab lectures, updating, creating, and facilitating lab activities, creating rubrics for and grading lab assignments, and proctoring lecture exams

Coordinator and Lab Instructor of The Earth and Life through Time, GEOS1014, VT
January 2008 – May 2008
•Coordinated six lab sections: four were taught by two teaching assistants, and two were taught by myself
•Proctored the lecture midterm and final exam; created and proctored lab exam

Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor of The Earth and Life through Time, GEOS1014, VT
August 2007 – December 2007
•Taught two undergraduate lab sections
•Responsibilities included giving lab lectures, updating and facilitating lab activities, proctoring lecture and lab exams, and substitute teaching in lecture
•Independently rewrote and published lab manual; organized, repaired, and updated entire teaching collection for the lab

Paleobotany Specimen Curation Assistant, MSU
September 2004 – May 2007
•Labeled, organized, repaired, correlated to field notes/research, and packed over 20,000 microscope slides of palynology specimens and several thousand coal and fossil plant hand samples for transfer of collection to the Field Museum in Chicago
•Created archive of field notes ranging from the 1950s until the 1990s, as well as dissertations and related literature

Lab Instructor of Geology of the Human Environment Laboratory, ISP203L, MSU
August 2005 – December 2005; August 2006 – December 2006
•Responsibilities included giving lab lectures, facilitating and grading lab activities and reports, and proctoring lecture and lab exams

Teaching Assistant/Lab Instructor of Physical and Biological History of the Earth, GLG304, MSU
August 2004 – May 2005; January 2006 – May 2006; January 2007 – May 2007
•Responsibilities included giving lab lectures, updating, facilitating, and grading lab activities, creating study guides and facilitating study sessions, and creating and proctoring the lab final exam

Vertebrate Fossil Collection Curator, UR
January - May 2003
•Systematically organized, physically repaired, and updated data for the vertebrate fossil teaching collection
•Assigned catalog numbers to all unnumbered specimens, and fitted all specimens with a proper, standardized label and proper housing
•Synthesized and donated a 300+ page inventory and guide book containing all information found for all specimens to the University

Foraminifera Sample Preparator, UR
February – May 2003
•Prepared Cenozoic forams for isotopic analysis by sieving sediment samples and selecting Ruber, Saculifer, and Dutertrei under a microscope

Applicable Skills:
COMPUTER SKILLS
Languages: HTML, XHTML, CSS
Software: MS Office Suite, Adobe CS4 Suite, SAS, Endnote, SuperBase Classic, PastPerfect, Filemaker Pro, Specify, JMP 7, PAST

GENERAL SKILLS
•French – proficient
•Japanese – conversational
•Accomplishing a variety of tasks at once within short periods of time
•Designing posters and powerpoints and presenting these at national conferences
•Drafting, presenting, and executing proposals
•Reporting on accomplishments and proposing future steps upon project completion
•Carefully carrying, packing, and transporting rare, delicate, and heavy items while maintaining their informational integrity
•Researching data for individual specimens and collections as a whole
•Simultaneously inventorying, organizing, and documenting separate rock, mineral, fossil, and equipment collections
•Finding invertebrate and vertebrate fossils in various field settings and preparing said fossils for safe transport back to the lab
•Mechanically preparing various types of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils from different localities
•Synthesizing photographic databases of collections containing hundreds of specimens
•Working with a variety of staff, faculty, researchers, teachers, and parents to aid in education and research
•Leading interactive workshops for educators
•Creating educational literatures for use by pK-12, undergraduate, and educator levels
•Training graduate students to perform various tasks in the museum, such as the proper way to catalogue specimens
•Creating programs, educational kits, literature, activities, and other resources to effectively engage the audience in inquiry-based learning and foster a fascination in science
•Establishing, updating, and maintaining safety information and practices in the workplace

Other:
AWARDS AND GRANTS
•Charles Edward Sears Summer Fellowship. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Geosciences. $1513. 2010.
•Geosciences Category (adult level) Year of Science Zine-a-thon Contest winner. COPUS & Year of Science. $25. 2010.
•D.R. Wones Research Award, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Geosciences. $1000. 2009.
•Geosciences Summer Fellowship, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Geosciences. $700. 2009.
•Tillman Geosciences Graduate Research Award, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. $1000. 2008.
•BP Geosciences Graduate Fellowship, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Geosciences. $1400. 2008.
•Shell Oil Company Fellowship for 2006-2007, Michigan State University Department of Geological Sciences. $400.
•Stephen J. Gould Student Grant, Paleontological Society. $500. 2005.
•Lucile Drake Pringle and Gordon H. Pringle Endowed Fellowship for 2004- 2005, Michigan State University Department of Geological Sciences. $1,518.
•Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, 2000.

CERTIFICATES
•Virginia Museum Collections Boot Camp. Held at Virginia Tech by the Virginia Association of Museums. 2010.
•Virginia Museum Fundamentals Forum. Held at Virginia Tech by the Virginia Association of Museums. 2010.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
•Smith, Amy C. 2010. Morphological and Morphometric Redescription of Tanytrachelos ahynis. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 70th Annual Meeting Program and Abstracts, p. 167A.
•Smith, Amy C. 2009. Comparative Morphometrics of Syllomus Carapace Bone Plates. Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology Proceedings, v. 2, p. 10.
•Smith, Amy C. 2008. Time-Stratigraphic Correlation to A. W. A. Kellner’s (2005) Strict Consensus Cladogram of Pterosaurs (Reptilia; Pterosauria). Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontology Proceedings, v. 1, p. 24.
•Smith, Amy C. 2006. Claw Morphology of Pteranodon and Possible Aquatic Locomotion. Geological Society of America Abstracts, v. 38, no. 7, p. 555.

PUBLICATIONS
•Smith, Amy C. 2008. Virginia Fossils and Paleontology Kit Guide. Written for the Museum of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, in conjunction with the design and production of the outreach kit of the same name.
•Smith, Amy C. 2008. Guide to the Vertebrate Fossil Teaching Collection Located in 207 Hutchinson, University of Rochester. Written for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester.
•Smith, Amy C. 2007. The Earth and Life through Time: Laboratory Manual (rewrite). Written for the Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech.