Featured In: House Calls by Anya Davidson

Carla Bruni has been a consistent catalyst for positive shifts in historic preservation - in Chicago, and beyond. She is OFFICIALLY a comic super hero. “House Calls” by Anya Davidson takes us on a short journey as Carla gives a compelling argument for preservation as an affordable housing tool. It’s an honor to be featured in the comic alongside Tonika Johnson and Shermann “Dilla” Thomas as an innovative preservationist.

You can buy a digital or physical issue of Newcity October 2023 Issue: Chicago Architecture Biennial on newcityshop.com.

Quoted In: Pay Transparency - Does mandatory disclosure of salaries reduce inequity? REPORT

It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Urooj Naveed for her report co-written with Tasmiha Khan about compensation transparency.

“Companies are facing a crescendo of calls for greater transparency about their pay levels, as local, regional and national governments enact laws designed to increase the visibility of salary rates. Pay transparency laws typically fall into three categories: prohibiting companies from banning salary discussions among ...” Click link to continue reading

Sick of Unpaid Internships?

Looking to advocate against unpaid internships? Here are some materials I’ve found to help people understand the importance of compensating interns; I’ll be sharing more information and advocacy strategies soon.

  • Unpaid internships benefit those who can afford to work for free, which means they benefit the few instead of the many (Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions)

  • Perpetuates wage gap (Washington Post)

  • Depreciates ALL cultural heritage workers at all levels - the work we do and our wages (Harvard Business Review)

  • Unpaid interns are not protected by labor laws, specifically ones for sexual harassment/gender discrimination. Even if an intern is getting credit, if the position is unpaid they are not protected by labor laws. (National Council on Public History)

  • An unpaid summer internship for credit costs a student on average $6,000+. The student loan crisis impacts cultural resource workers and many have to take on additional debt to do unpaid labor. That $6,000 with interest can quickly increase. (Money.com)

  • "Unpaid internships also raise issues of fairness, equity and potential exploitation simply because most college students cannot afford to forgo a paying job or go deeper into debt simply to burnish their resumes." (Forbes)

  • The data does not lie! Here is what Pay Our Interns have found in their research! 

    • "2 Million: The estimated number of people who intern in the U.S. each year."

    • "6% to 8% of Black and Latinx students have paid internship experience, compared to 74% of their white peers."

    • "50% More Job Offers: Paid interns received 50% more job offers compared to unpaid interns or those who have never interned"

    • "6 out of 10 employers prefer hiring a candidate with work experience such as internships. In the 1970s, 3 out of 4 jobs required a high school education or less."

    • "80% of students in college are working part-time jobs to pay for their living expenses."

  • The January 19, 2023 Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies sent by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget. "Agencies are encouraged to expand their overall number of interns while increasing the number of paid interns and reducing reliance on unpaid interns, consistent with applicable laws."

House where King planned Alabama marches moving to Michigan

Athena F. Richardson, M.A. and I believe that it it is a privilege to support someone's dream and we have been honored to support Jawana Jackson's. Since 2021, I have worked alongside Athena F. Richardson to support Jawana Jackson as she explored how the Jackson Home and her family’s story should/could be preserved. We examined every option possible to achieve Jawana’s goals of using the home and its contents as an international educational tool for social innovation and civil rights history.

Jawana spoke, shared, and maintained laser focus on her dream. Athena and I listened, researched, and worked with Jawana to create “the blueprint” to find the next caretaker of the Jackson Home. We reached out to Katherine White*, Curator of Design at the Henry Ford to start a conversation and now we have made history. Please take the time out of your busy schedules to learn about the Jackson Home's history and its future.


*+ a fellow alumni of Eastern Michigan University’s Historic Preservation program.

American Alliance of Museums Changes Job Board Policies

After 700+ petition signatures, hundreds of postcards, and many emails the American Alliance of Museums has chosen to require compensation for their job board. It has been a pleasure to work with Sierra Van Ryck deGroot, the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network, and many of you to advocate for this change. We are going to continue advocating for compensation transparency, but we also are advocating against unpaid internships. We will be updating the Equity in Pay + Pay Transparency Accountability Table regularly.

Featured on Hyperallergic

It has been a joy to partner with Sierra Van Ryck deGroot and the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network to advocate for wage transparency and healthy work environments. The cultural resource sector is broad - workers do everything from manage historic house museums to lead archaeology digs and everything in between. Transparency is important as we work together toward ensuring both living and equitable wages. Thank you Hyperallergic for amplifying this message. We aren't done advocating for change!

“As a new class of graduating college students gears up to enter the job market, a fresh cohort of art lovers will apply to fill the estimated 4,900 museum job openings in the United States.

But snagging one of those coveted jobs is notoriously competitive, and the work itself is infamously underpaid.” - Elaine Vellie

Continue reading the full article.

Now Announcing the Equity in Pay + Pay Transparency Accountability Database

“The National Emerging Museum Professionals Network (NEMPN) is delighted to share that, in partnership with Sarah Marsom of Dismantle Preservation, we have compiled and will be actively updating a new resource for the museum community.

As you may know, NEMPN is dedicated to salary transparency and pay equity in all forms, including the end of unpaid internships in the museum field. Sarah has also committed to this work in the preservation and collections sector.

We are delighted to announce our newest resource, the Equity in Pay + Pay Transparency Database. Hosted via Airtable, we have compiled the beginnings of an accountability database where folks will be able to publicly see which museum professional organizations and other related job posting spaces have committed to #ShowTheSalary and not supporting the continuation of unpaid internships in this sector by including them on their jobs boards (#DeathToUnpaidInternships).

You can view the database here (link is also below) or if you notice an organization/jobs resource space not being shared or the information is incorrect or if your organization/resource does decide to change your policies, you can submit your updates here (link is also below). We will be updating the document on a semi-regular basis! “

Last updated 6/22/22:

Access the Equity in Pay + Pay Transparency Accountability Database here.

Submit updated information to the Equity in Pay + Pay Transparency Accountability Database here.