PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
TRAVEL
Growing up, my older brother and I had the incredible opportunity to travel with my father when he taught history overseas. I lived for a summer in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where I loved making friends and attending school. My early travels gave me the chance to experience places outside of Wisconsin, inspiring me to move after high school.
CALIFORNIA
Following my time in Westchester, New York, I moved to San Francisco for nine years and Los Angeles for five, where I pursued the arts and worked in a variety of corporate positions as well as commercial and film production. While living in California, I became interested in the California Gold Rush and California Native American history.
EDUCATION
My passion for history brought me back to Wisconsin, where I received my B.S. in Archaeology and minor in English at UW-La Crosse, and M.S. in Anthropology with a focus on Public History from UW-Milwaukee.
ARCHAEOLOGY
The many interesting positions I held in archaeology and anthropology all provided valuable knowledge and insight, including my Berkeley field school in northern California at the Fort Ross Site, assisting field crews in Pinedale, Wyoming, on the Archaeological Investigations at the Lander Trail New Fork River Crossing Historical Park, the Aztalan Site in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, and the Upper Minnesota Oneota Site in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I appreciate the knowledge I attained working on cultural resource management projects in Milwaukee, Madison, and Bayfield, Wisconsin.
JEWISH MUSEUM MILWAUKEE
Transcribing oral histories in the archival department at Jewish Museum Milwaukee is a highlight in my volunteer work. Learning about late 19th and early 20th-century Jewish migration stories, the early settlement of Milwaukee, the immense sacrifice Jewish men and women made in their service in the war, the unique first-hand accounts about Old World culture, art, sports, medicine, education, law, etc., the broader commitment to faith, family, community, society, business, and commerce, all contributed to the vibrant, diverse, and culturally-rich Milwaukee we see today.
KOREAN WAR PROJECT
A particularly rewarding historical contract position was transcribing war letters for Dr. Mark Koerner about his father, Peter Koerner, a Special Investigations Officer in the Korean War. In print, Windows on a War: The Korean War As Seen By Peter Koerner, USAF, 1950-1953.
THE MILWAUKEE STUDY
I also enjoyed interviewing members of the Milwaukee community for a large-scale ethnic study led by Dr. Jill Florence Lackey. I respect each individual's contributions to the study and the heartfelt stories they shared with me. In print, Lackey, J.F. (2013). Ethnic Practices in the Early Twenty-First Century: The Milwaukee Study. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
ACADEMIC PAPERS
1) Unity in Numbers: The Archaeology of the Demimonde (1840-1917).
https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/37458
2) The Archaeology of Working-Class Children in the Nineteenth Century in New York's Five Points Neighborhood and Paterson, New Jersey.
3) Bringing Humanity to Keith’s Siding: A Twentieth-Century Logging and Railroad Settlement in Northern Wisconsin.
https://uwm.academia.edu/MeganSharpless
https://uwm.academia.edu/MeganSharpless
HISTORY, STORYTELLING, ITS SIGNIFICANCE
Learning about the past can anchor and bridge humanity in the present. When we choose to look back, we can learn from past wrongs. These mistakes in history provide us with wisdom and compassion in moving forward.
Different oral storytelling traditions and the written word help us to remember past events in history and shed light on individual perspectives.
People's stories keep our histories alive and relevant in the present, and foster empathy for our fellow human beings. It's powerful to hear someone else's story and pass these stories down to younger generations.
WHO INSPIRES ME
Casey J. O'Malley, my family and my ancestors, Dr. Maya Angelou, Ponca Chief Standing Bear, Shoshone Chief Bear Hunter, Shoshoni Bear River girl, Emily Bronte, Frederick Douglass, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lakota Sioux Archie Fire Lame Deer, Ponca Chief White Eagle, Alana Fairchild, Rudolph Fisher, Anne Frank, Henry James, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen King, Matasiete, Walter Mosley, Percival Pollard, Edgar Allen Poe, Ojibwe White Earth Marcie Rendon, Yankton Dakota Sioux Zitkala-Ša, Sante Fe Girl, Mary Shelley, Ojibwe Red Cliff Band Rabbett Before Horses Strickland, Leo Tolstoy, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary E. Wilkins, and any individual in history who has ever fought for freedom, justice where justice is due, civil rights, human rights, animal rights, environmental rights and for peace. Our fight is far from over.
"I want to be a real writer one day." - ANNE FRANK