What are AASLH Online Courses?
AASLH Online Courses are designed for busy history-doers. Each course is offered twice a year, but class sizes are limited. Click here to view courses currently open for registration. Please see each individual course description for more information on course style and requirements.
Course Catalog
Course Facilitators
Facilitates Leadership and Administration for History Organizations
Anne W. Ackerson is a former history museum director, director of the Museum Association of New York, and director of the national Council of State Archivists. Her independent consulting focuses on governance and management issues in cultural institutions. She is the co-author of Leadership Matters: Leading Museums in an Age of Discord, a book examining history museum leadership for the 21st century, and Women in the Museum: Lessons from the Workplace. In 2018, she collaborated on research revealing that 62% of the museum workforce are affected by some form of gender discrimination. Most recently, she represented AASLH in a working group with the National Council on Public History to field a survey regarding gender discrimination and sexual harassment in public history.
She is a co-founder of the Gender Equity in Museums Movement (GEMM), which is focusing its recent efforts on education, advocacy, and policy development around pay equity, salary transparency, and sexual harassment in the museum workplace.
She is a frequent workshop/webinar presenter on issues of museum ethics, executive leadership, financial management, and board roles and responsibilities. In addition to teaching the AASLH Online Course Leadership and Administration for History Organizations, she developed curriculum materials and a webinar on strategic planning for the American Association of State and Local History’s STEPS program, a national standards program for history museums.
Facilitates Introduction to Financial Management and Introduction to Museum Endowments
Rebekah Beaulieu, Ph.D. is the Louise Taft Semple President & CEO of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. She previously served as Director of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut and as Associate Director at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. She serves as Treasurer of AASLH and on the faculty of AASLH’s History Leadership Institute. Becky is also an Accreditation Commissioner for the American Alliance of Museums.
Becky is the author of Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017 and of Endowment Essentials for Museums (2022). She holds an M.A in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and in Arts Administration from Columbia University; she earned her Ph.D. in American and New England Studies at Boston University.
Facilitates Project Management for History Professionals
Lisa Craig Brisson is the Executive Director for the Michigan Museums Association. She took the AALSH Project Management for History Professionals workshop in 2014 and applied the principals she learned to her organization, which is now thriving. She also took the online course by AASLH, has spent hundreds of house learning how to best use Project Management, and is working toward her certification. This is the first time that Lisa has taught this course, but she is excited share her enthusiasm for the process.
Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Lisa received her B.A. in history and secondary education from the University of St. Thomas and an M.A. in History from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. She has worked for or done history or museum-related project with the Minnesota Historical Society, Ramsey County (MN) Historical Society, Old Sturbridge Village (MA), The Farmer’s Museum (NY), Mackinac State Historic Parks, the Visitor Studies Association, the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education, North Central Michigan College, the Cheboygan Area Public Library/Museum on Main Street, Central Michigan University, Harbor Springs Historical Society, and the Mackinac Island Center for the Arts. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Cultural Advocacy Network of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula (MI) Arts and Culture Alliance, and the Coalition of State Museum Associations.
Lisa lives in the Straits of Mackinac region of Michigan, where Lakes Michigan and Huron join and the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan are closest together. She lives with her husband, Steve, and their youngest child, who graduates from high school this spring. In the winter they live in Cheboygan, near the tip of the Lower Peninsula and in the summer they live on an island, where her husband is the director for Mackinac State Historic Parks. In her free time, Lisa enjoys downhill skiing, doing jigsaw puzzles, knitting hats, and hosting summer Happy Hours.
Facilitates Caring for Museum Collections
Email: [email protected]
Rebecca Elder is an experienced cultural heritage preservation consultant who helps clients find practical and achievable solutions to care for their history collections. She collaborates with libraries, museums, archives, municipalities and families to tailor preservation plans to their resources and timelines.
In 2014, Rebecca founded Rebecca Elder Cultural Heritage Preservation to provide preservation advice to clients holding history collections. Rebecca has also worked at Amigos Library Services, the Harvard University Libraries and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Rebecca received her MSIS and a Certificate of Advanced Studies for Conservation of Library and Archival Materials from the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, and now is adjunct faculty at the iSchool, teaching Preservation Management and Treatment Techniques for Bound Materials. She also serves as coordinator for the National Heritage Responders, a team of volunteer conservators and allied professionals who respond to disasters.
Rebecca is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. She also engages in professional service with the American Institute for Conservation, the Society of American Archivists, the Society of Southwest Archivists, and the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums.
Rebecca lives in Austin, TX with her four cats: Frankie, Princess Snowball, Thingy and Tucker the Most Interesting Cat In The World (@heytuckercat on Instagram). She knits obsessively, collects smashed pennies, and isn’t afraid to admit that she loves 1970s white polyester jumpsuit Elvis. Looking to connect? Head to www.elderpreservation.com. She’ll be glad you did.
Developing Exhibitions
Jenney Fazande is an experienced and creative designer with more than ten years experience in exhibit development, fabrication and museum administration. Holding a Master of Arts in Exhibition Design from the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Jenney has worked with museums and galleries of all sizes, including The National Museum of African American History and Culture, The National WWII Museum, The Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Design Atlanta, The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, and more. Jenney has also collaborated with community artists working in varying mediums to bring unique installations to life in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Washington DC.
Experienced in all aspects of exhibit development and management – from design, fabrication and installation to accompanying marketing, public programs and financial oversight – Jenney can effectively translate concepts into compelling installations. An emerging leader in the museum field, Jenney was awarded the 2017 PACE SETTER Award by the Association of African American Museums for her innovative traveling exhibit, Fighting for the Right to Fight: African American Experiences in World War II, which has been on display across the country since 2016.
Museum Education and Outreach
Best Practices for Inclusive Workplaces
Dr. Kellie C. Martin is a Chicagoland Area native and is the mother of a soon-to-be 17-year-old global philanthropist. Kellie has earned a Bachelors in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Marketing Management, a Masters in Organizational Leadership coupled with certificates in Business Acumen and Performance Coaching from Lipscomb University, and her Doctorate in Business Administration from Trevecca Nazarene University. Additionally, she has obtained a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Workplace certificate from the University of South Florida Muma School of Business. She is currently the Executive Director of Public Relations & Resource Development at South Suburban College.
Dr. Martin has a passion for personal and professional development and growth and is a conduit for change within corporate settings. She is the visionary for The Think Tank, where she partnered with the athletic department at Fisk University to act as a thought partner with student-athletes to journey with them in developing methodologies for transitional thinking from adolescent thought processes into managed adult thinking.
As an advocate for Black women and girls and mental health awareness and support, Kellie is also a member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Metropolitan Nashville Chapter and the Meharry Medical College Mental Health Advisory Board. Her mission is to assist in providing resources, educational tools, and support for those who desire to become their best selves personally and professionally. As well as help business education students increase the value of their degrees by promoting networking, career path development, and a realistic perspective of the American workforce.
Facilitates Collections Management
Dr. Erin Richardson facilitates museums’ and cultural organizations’ capacity for mission delivery, particularly relating to art and artifact collections. With over 20 years of experience working with museum communities at Five Colleges, Inc in Amherst, MA, Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, NY, among other organizations, she founded Frank & Glory in 2018 to assist museums in solving long-term collection problems so that they may effectively serve their communities. Clients include the American Numismatic Society, New Brunswick Museum (Canada), Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Olana Partnership. Her research and writing centers on how New York State’s unique chartering policy for museums affects organization health. Richardson holds a PhD in Leadership and Policy from Niagara University, a MA in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program and a BA in American Studies from the SUNY Geneseo.
The Academic Museum
Patti Wood Finkle is the Curator for the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery at Penn State University. She is a graduate of both Texas A&M University, with an undergraduate degree in anthropology and Texas Tech University, with a master’s degree in museum science. She has become a strong proponent of utilizing campus museums in college curriculum, an important topic in recent years. Finkle has increased efforts to engage with the college community to demonstrate the museum’s relevancy to the 21st century student. She has been promoting this idea through a series of conference presentations and publications including “Humanistic Constructs: Creating Agency in a Natural History Museum” (2021) and “Creative Collaborations: Humanities programing in a natural history museum” (2022). She is also a co-founder and host of The M Files Podcast, a museum-centric podcast.
Bradley J. Wiles, PhD
Basics of Archives
Bradley J. Wiles is the Head of the Special Collections and Archives Department at Northern Illinois University’s Founders Memorial Library. He has worked in a variety of archives and library settings since 2008 and holds a doctorate in Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies. His research interests include information ethics and public policy, social and political dimensions of archives and information, organizational management, the sustainability of cultural institutions, archives in popular culture, and library and archives history. Wiles has extensive experience teaching archival research and primary source literacy as part of his work as an archivist, as well as formal instructional roles in graduate level courses for collection acquisitions and management, appraisal and description, and library administration.