Marietta Baba

In 1984, Marietta L. Baba developed the first General Education course on Business Anthropology for undergraduate majors in business and engineering (cited in The Economist, 3/13/04). This course, which focuses on the cross-cultural dimensions of global business and industry, became a core curriculum requirement of the College of Engineering at Wayne State University, and subsequently was taken by thousands of engineering and other majors headed for diverse careers in many different industries. Marietta L. Baba (probably) was the first woman academic anthropologist to represent anthropology to American business and industry at large, conducting research and consulting with twenty private sector organizations over the past two decades and still going strong.

Joseph Chartkoff

I have had the privilege of working on a wide variety of outreach efforts. I am a founding member of the East Lansing Historical Society and have served as one of its presidents. In Dec., 2003, I was invited to give a folk music performance by the East Lansing Womens Club to help celebrate the community's centennial. In April, 2004, I was invited to speak at the Michigan State Historical Museum on archaeological hoaxes. I am currently working on writing a history for the East Lansing Historical Commission on archaeological evidence of a prehistoric Native American trail that crossed East Lansing. In 2002-2003 I headed a commission for the College of Social Science to develop a plan to provide improved educational training in the social sciences for school teachers in mid-Michigan. In 2001-2002 I directed a project for the Michigan Department of Transportation to summarize the archaeological significance of the historic Detroit-Chicago Highway (US 12) in Hillsdale County.

Kenneth David

Sspecialize in organizational and cross-border project studies. These studies emphasize strategy and technical knowledge plus cultural and power issues. His focus is inter-organizational relationships (acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and outsourcing projects in which dispersed teams of engineers co-design a product or process) where trans-cultural communications are an essential skill for performance. Since 1997, he has engaged in Professional Applications of Anthropology, teaching professionals from other fields, principally engineers and medical personnel, about cultural and power issues that occur regularly in their professional practice but about which they are not adequately educated. Example: these capabilities are useful in outsourcing dispersed team activities to avoid costly miscommunications.

Laura DeLind

* Consultant to and grant writer for the Allen Neighborhood Center, Lansing MI for the development of their urban food project. * Board member of the Michigan Farmers Union Foundation, which administers a revolving loan for small-scale, resource-poor farmers in Michigan. * Advisory board member of CSA-MI a state-wide advocacy organization for community supported agriculture (CSA).

William Derman

I have had extensive engagement with the University of Zimbabwe, Centre for Applied Social Sciences as a mentor and member of postgraduate committees. They have had no anthropologist on their staff. I have argued for and helped shape the resolution from the International Water Management Institute’s position on water for the poor. I have attempted in different fora – the Norwegian Development Research Association, the African Studies Association, etc. and in print to contend that a right to water be recognized as an important human right. I have participated in State Department and USAID’s assessments of the complex humanitarian crises in Zimbabwe including severe political repression. During my many research years in Zimbabwe I engaged with government leaders to address issues arising from on resettlement and water reform including a large workshop in which results were presented and discussed with stakeholders. I have served as an expert unpaid witness in asylum cases on behalf of Zimbabweans and Guineans claiming high political risks if they were to return.

Todd Fenton

I am one of two consulting forensic anthropologists at the Michigan
State University Forensic Anthropology Lab (with Norm Sauer,
who is the Lab Director). Together we work on an average of 60
cases per year, consulting for law enforcement agencies, forensic
pathologists, medical examiners, and attorneys across the state of
Michigan and beyond. These cases involve the identification of
human remains, the reconstruction of the skeletal trauma, and
forensic image comparison.

Lynne Goldstein

* Helped conceive & develop idea of Saints' Rest excavations on campus - site of first dorm (1856-1876). Done for Sesquicentennial and major PR; covered in Chronicle of Higher Ed and Science. * Serve on Technical Advisory Committee for Aztalan State Park in Wisconsin, working with Legislature and Department of Natural Resources to create new Master Plan for park. * Member, Advisory Committee, Florida Public Archaeology
Network - helped create network and advised in development of
centers and allocations of grants.

Susan Krouse

I serve on the Board of Directors (elected secretary 2000 - present) of the Nokomis Learning Center, a Native American educational center in Okemos, Michigan, focusing on Indian peoples of the Great Lakes. My efforts include grant writing, fund raising, and consulting on curriculum, exhibits, and programming. In addition, as part of my responsibilities as Director of the American Indian Studies Program at Michigan State University, I regularly do outreach to Native tribes and communities, as well as to the general public, on educational and cultural issues affecting American Indian peoples.

Mara Leichtman

I have been working on an interdisciplinary research project called "Building Islam in Detroit" which has focused on mapping Islamic institutions in the greater Detroit area and describing the various Muslim communities. This project has resulted in a website and a traveling museum exhibit, which aim to educate the public about Muslims in Michigan. I have also been interviewed by the Lansing State Journal and ABC news on the new "Muslim Studies" specialization I am helping to develop at MSU.

Kenneth Lewis

My public outreach activities for 2005 involve my participation in the Saints' Rest archaeological project at Michigan State University. This project was associated with the university's sesquicentennial celebration and generated publicity for the university in the form of interviews with radio, television, and print media as well as public talks. As one of the co-directors of the project, I was involved with all of these forms of public outreach.

Andrea Louie

I co-organized with Michigan State University's Asian Studies Center a one-day symposium titled “Beyond the Melting Pot: Asian Adoptees in the 21st Century U.S.” held April 16, 2005. The audience consisted primarily of adoptive parents and adoption professionals from Michigan.

William Lovis

1) I regularly engage in the identification of artifacts and artifact collections for the public. 2) I work with both government and private archaeological contract firms on various policy and compliance related issues. 3) In the past year I have been on three public radio shows discussing various aspects of the archaeology of Michigan. 4) I produced a public exhibit that highlighted the work of Michigan State University research in better understanding the precontact past of the Great Lakes.

Laurie Medina

My outreach activities have focused on internationalizing the curriculum in Michigan at both K-12 and community college levels. Toward this goal, I regularly make presentations -- through organizations aimed at those two audiences -- that identify current trends in Latin America and provide illustrations of those trends. In pursuit of the same goal, I have also been involved in leading and facilitating Fulbright Group Projects Abroad that have taken K-12 and Community College faculty to Latin America to develop curriculum modules, service learning opportunities, or study abroad programs.

Jodie O' Gorman

1. Saints' Rest Project: In 2005 several of the archaeologists from the department conducted an excavation at the site of the university’s first dormitory commonly known as Saints’ Rest. Part of the institution’s sesquicentennial anniversary, this project reached hundreds of individuals from many diverse audiences in the greater campus area through open houses, television and radio interviews, public talks, and daily encounters. I also developed and instructed a high school archaeology program with the MSU Museum. 2. Collections-Related Outreach: I consult with individuals from around the state on their artifact collections. I am also co-curator of the Collections Connections exhibit at the MSU Museum. 3. Research-Related Outreach: I have published several papers for general audiences on various aspects of my research, and produced materials for the City of St. Ignace's museum regarding my work at a site there.

Helen Perlstein Pollard

1. I regularly identify artifacts from Latin America for the general public in Michigan, assess gifts to the MSU Museum from potential donors, and field requests from local (and not so local) descendants of people from Michoacan, the region in Mexico in which I have worked for several decades. 2. I regularly speak to K-12 classes on the prehistory of Mesoamerica and the role of archaeology in understanding our past and advise individual teachers on curriculum development. 3. In the region of Mexico in which I have worked for several decades I have had exhibits of field projects in local schools, spoken to student and adult groups about their past, and regularly participate in meetings of Mexican scholars and local participants advancing Tarascan studies (p'urepecha). 4. Increasingly I have advised and acted as contact for medical and legal professionals needing translators for Tarascan speakers in U.S. hospitals and courts.

Judy Pugh

One of my primary outreach activities involves the promotion of greater public awareness of India and South Asia. Through my membership on the MSU Asian Studies Center Advisory Council and the Kapur Endowment Fund Advisory Board, I work with others to promote speakers and programs that inform the community about the dynamic changes occurring in India and their relevance for Michigan and the United States. Another area of public relevance centers on my work with the MSU College of Human Medicine's Student Attitudes Project. We are tracking medical students through their coursework and clerkship years and into their roles as physician-residents in hospitals across the country in order to learn more about their attitudes and experiences with low income and often chronically ill patients assisted by Medicaid and other support agencies. Our aim is to elucidate the interface that connects medical students and physicians, patients, community organizations, and government programs.

Alison Rautman

The MSU Department of Anthropology is helping to organize the MSU celebration of Darwin's birthday on Feb 12, 2006, and is also participating in organizing local events for the nation-wide Darwin Day in 2009. Anthropology will be hosting displays regarding human evolution with our teaching skull collection, and the Graduate Students in Anthropology organization will be organizing a "quiz bowl" game on Darwin himself, evolutionary theory, human evolution, and common misconceptions. The undergraduate Anthropology Club members will help with a "natural selection" game for younger kids.

Fredric Roberts

My work has long been oriented to public outreach, particularly to the largest set of voluntary organizations in the U.S.: religious congregations. My multiyear Lilly-Endowment sponsored multidisciplinary study of the spiritual and organizational lives of mainline Protestant congregations and Roman Catholic parishes in the metropolitan Detroit and Lansing areas resulted in the publication of a book targeted to lay and ordained leaders of such faith communities: Be Not Afraid: Building Your Church on Faith and Knowledge (2005). The project also developed an extensive web site to serve ordained leaders of mainline Protestant churches. The project research team provided each of the twelve study site churches with its own extensive report on the issues that concerned that faith community. The Provost’s Office of Michigan State invited me to make a presentation on this project for its Meet Michigan Program for new faculty interested in outreach activities.

 

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