So what do you do here?

I do educational programming for the University of Iowa Museum of Art. I work with UI departments and classes, teach a course in the Museum Studies Program, oversee a statewide K-12 outreach program, supervise the volunteer docents and the UIMA@IMU Gallery attendants, and do programming for the public.

What do you enjoy most about working in a higher education setting?

There is always something engaging happening at the University of Iowa and in Iowa City. As a lifelong learner, it is a really stimulating environment; there are new ways to be challenged professionally and personally, and there’s so much variety in the workplace, there’s no chance to get bored.

Take us through your most memorable day at the university.

My most memorable and rewarding days at the university include escorting Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith through the UIMA on a day we were closed to see the Jackson Pollock Mural (they wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga); talking with a young man who was retracing Jack Kerouac’s route across the United States (the young man stopped to pay pilgrimage to the On The Road manuscript, which the UIMA displayed unrolled—which was, at the time, the first time the 140-foot manuscript was seen as a whole); the excitement around the Robert Wilson: VOOM Portraits exhibition; and, of course, seeing that all of the UIMA collections were saved from the 2008 flood.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken—and did it pay off?

My biggest professional risks were arguing for the UIMA to host Jack Kerouac’s On The Road manuscript and the Robert Wilson: VOOM Portraits exhibitions. It did pay off: these were very popular exhibitions, and record setting, at the time. My biggest personal risk happened before arriving in Iowa City. I quit my previous job before I knew I had the job at the UIMA. Now that I have been here 10 years, I would safely say it paid off as well.

If you could spend a day with anyone, from any era, who would it be and why?

There are so many people throughout history that I admire, but I don’t want to meet any of them because I would be afraid to have “my version” of my heroes diminished in any way. There are hundreds of artists, musicians, authors, and political figures whom I respect and admire, but if I can experience their works or learn about them, that is enough. If I could go back in time and live in the late 19th and early to mid-20th century New York or Paris, I would do that in a minute.

If you could have a song written about you, who would perform it, and what would it be called?

Well, Bruce Springsteen would have to perform it! I know that much. He wouldn’t have to write a song for me, personally, though, because I feel like I have lived through so many of his songs already.

If you could get rid of one invention in the world, what would you choose? Why?

I would get rid of poverty. That is a man-made invention we would all be better off without.

Name five of your favorite things.

Billiard balls, certain stones, postcards, seeing other places (but I don’t like traveling), and the middle of the night.