Alumni Spotlight: Elizabeth Quinn MacMillan

Elizabeth Quinn MacMillan is the Curator at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. After graduating from Loyola University Chicago with her MA in Public History in 2011, she worked in a variety of museum positions before starting her current position in 2018. In this interview, MacMillan reflects on her career and her time at Loyola.

What has the trajectory of your career been since you graduated from Loyola?

When I graduated with my Masters in Public History from Loyola I went back to working for the Federal Government. I had done my first museum internship and contract jobs at the Bureau of Land Management’s Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum, which is an archaeological museum in Dolores, CO. I was hired on as a SCEP (Student Career Experience Program) in a term appointment, and I was working in collections cataloging, helping with exhibits, and doing behind-the-scenes tours. After a couple of years in that role, I got the job of collections manager at The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe, NM where I was lucky enough to be part of the installation of their expanded permanent exhibit galleries featuring Native jewelry. In 2016 I moved back to southwest Colorado and was hired as collections manager and registrar at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College. The Center is a museum, archives, and library with broad collections focused on the history, environments, and cultures of the Southwest and has a particular mission to serve Fort Lewis College students as well as the general public so we do academic engagement on and off campus, annual exhibitions, and public programming along with caring for extensive collections.

What is your current position? What are your responsibilities?

I became the Curator at the Center of Southwest Studies in 2018. As Curator, I am responsible for overseeing the care, management, and exhibition of the Center’s museum collections as well as fundraising and strategic planning for the program. I supervise the Center's undergraduate interns and student-workers for the museum and gallery, providing mentorship and professional development. Supporting Fort Lewis College’s strategic initiatives, I also work with faculty and staff to integrate museum collections into academic courses and promote their use for experiential curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities for students.

What is your favorite thing about your current position?

I love getting to work with students and train the next generation of museum professionals.

How did your Loyola education prepare you for your career?

I got a really broad experience studying public history at Loyola that I feel like has helped me tremendously in working with faculty and students at Fort Lewis and with my day-to-day duties as curator. I love that I learned about museum and archives work as well as broader cultural heritage work. It has all come together working with such diverse collections at the Center.

Do you remember a particular experience or class from your time at Loyola that has had an impact on your career?

I have some fond memories of getting to do field trips as part of our Management of Historical Resources and Management of History Museums classes. Being in Chicago allowed me to experience a lot of different historical monuments, districts, museums, and more.

 

Elizabeth Quinn MacMillan