Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017 - 33

Profiles
Member Profile - Marcia Revelez
by Ann Pinzl
Our members play many different roles, from collection
management and conservation, to databasing and informatics,
to research and education. Many of our members come from
a traditional research background while many of our new
members are coming into the field from the museum studies
field. Our hope is to introduce our membership to a variety of
individuals who are playing very dynamic roles in their museum's activities. We are casting our net broadly and selecting
individuals from institutions of all sizes and backgrounds.

Snapshot
What is your name?
Marcia Revelez, but you can call me Marcy.
What is your position?
Collections Manager
Where do you work?
CASPIR (CDC and ATSDR Specimen Packaging, Inventory,
and Repository), the biorepository for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
How many years have you been working in this
capacity?
Less than a year at the CDC. I was recruited to join the
CASPIR team at CDC as a subject-matter expert, using my
background (some 16 years at the Sam Noble Oklahoma
Museum of Natural History and Angelo State Natural History
Collections) in natural history collections to help modernize
CDC's biorepository.
When did you join SPNHC?
I joined in 2004. Ironically, my first meeting was that year's
NYC joint meeting of SPNHC and ISBER (International
Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories),
and now managing cryorepositories are a significant part of
my job. SPNHC blew me away from the very first moment!
Members of the society made me feel so welcomed, and I
got involved immediately. Since then, I have served as Chair
of the Citations Subcommittee, Co-chair of the Documentation Committee, and of the Local Organizing Committee
(2008 meeting) and on Council. Currently, I serve on the Best
Practices Committee and the Sessional Committee for U.S.
Federal Collections. I am happy to announce that in the fall
of 2017 I will begin serving SPNHC as Managing Editor and
Chair of the Publications Committee.

In-depth
What drew you to the natural history field?
As a child, I'd spend my time exploring nearby fields. I
would come home with animals I collected in jars or shoeboxes and then try to study them. I made my own plant
collection - pressing plant parts into a book I made. When
older, I focused on mammals and knew I wanted to spend my
life working with them.
When I started college I was fortunate to meet Dr. Robert
C. Dowler, Curator of Mammals at the Angelo State Natural
History Collections (ASNHC). He took me under his wing
and I worked with ASNHC's mammal, bird, frozen tissue,
herp and fish collections. I consider him one of the best in the
field, and he taught me so much about mammals and natural
history collections. To this day he remains a mentor and dear
friend - I learned from the best!
I also did my master's at Angelo State University, working
in the collections and getting to help with everything "mammals" ... I loved it. During that time, I attended my first meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists where I met
Bill Stanley from the Field Museum. I will never forget the
time he took to really talk with me. His words meant a lot and
years later when I got my first real job as a Collections Manager, he called to congratulate. I will never forget the impact
he had on me over the years.
Describe the nature of the collections you work
with.
I have worked in natural history collections for over 20 years
with an emphasis on mammalogy collections, cryocollections, IPM, education, and outreach. In 2016, my life took a
big turn when I accepted my current position at CDC as Collections Manager with CASPIR, a biorepository. Essentially,
September 2017 * 33

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