Driven by curiosity, Cathy’s interests have guided her to a diverse range of experiences and considerations—many of which led her to where she is today.

Read more below, in Cathy’s words

I’ve always been curious about everything and everyone. As a kid, I loved science, sports, music, languages, art, and history equally, trying out a lot of hobbies over the years. Growing up in Philadelphia, I also have vivid childhood memories of visiting museums with my family. I went to the Franklin Institute more times than I can count throughout my childhood, always returning to my favorite spots, like the giant heart. I remember being simultaneously terrified hearing the heart beating around me loudly in my ears yet fascinated at how, by walking through the heart, I was taking the same wild journey that blood takes through our bodies every day. I know now that this was my first “immersive” museum experience. 

In college, my interest in a diversity of subjects and my childhood museum experiences intersected. I decided to study three areas: History, French language and literature, and Biological Anthropology. In my head, all these topics easily fit together—they all involved rigorous research and analysis processes yet were ultimately about people and their stories. For a while I wasn’t sure how (or if) I could bring them all together professionally. Thinking about this, I remembered how much I loved spending time at museums growing up—how they were places where I learned about all of these topics and stories that fascinated me—and I decided to find ways to spend as much time at museums as I could.  

I dabbled in many different aspects of museum work, from working with families at a history and civics museum to creating hands-on activities about skulls for a new human evolution gallery. Each new museum experience cemented for me how much I loved museums and the curious, smart people that worked in them and that visited. I was hooked.