Kate Sarther, Membership Coordinator

Kate began her archaeological career at the University of Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and assisted the Collections staff at the Oriental Institute Museum for many years. Her professional training in archaeological preservation and collections management landed her in Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Crete, and ultimately Tucson, where she received a Master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1997. Although Kate's primary research focused on the identification and interpretation of ritual spaces in the earliest village sites in Southwest Asia, she also found herself exploring the evolutionary significance of food sharing behaviors.

During her subsequent tenure as assistant curator in the Archaeological Repository at the Arizona State Museum, Kate focused on the curation challenges embodied by older collections as well as the storage crisis incurred by exponential growth in new collections throughout the American Southwest. She has published on academic topics and collections management, but is proudest of her ongoing work with the interpretation of anthropological research for public audiences.

As the Center's new Membership Coordinator, Kate channels her respect for the material remains of the human past with a passion for sharing and expanding knowledge about these precious resources that surely belies her origins among a family of teachers. She endeavors to serve the Center's mission by welcoming like-minded people across the world, inviting them to experience the wonder and fragility of the region's endangered cultural landscapes, and ultimately engaging their commitment to the preservation of our shared human heritage.

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