Meet the Staff

Director
Allyn Lord is the museum director. She's been active in numerous professional museum organizations in Arkansas, the Southeast, and the country. She also serves as a peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums and as a field reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services' assessment and grants programs. In May 2007, Allyn was elected to the board of directors of the American Association of Museums. She has lived in Northwest Arkansas since 1982 and enjoys volunteering, her two cats, kayaking, and hosting the occasional game show.

Collections
Carolyn Reno has been the collections manager since 1984. She takes care of the museum's collections and her duties include researching, cataloging, cleaning, and storing objects, as well as overseeing maintenance of security and HVAC systems. Her museum-related interests include textiles, ceramics, and researching old patents on the U.S Patent website.

Heather Marie Wells is the collections assistant and technology coordinator.. She has been at Shiloh since 2002 and spends most of her time cataloging, cleaning, researching, and storing objects. She also helps with exhibits from time to time, and is in charge of producing our podcasts. Heather Marie earned her BA and MA in anthropology from the University of Arkansas and she has participated in archeological digs in Arkansas and Oregon. In addition to her background in museum studies and archeology, she has spent time studying popular culture and the cultures of Ireland, the American South, and the Middle East.

Exhibits
Curtis Morris has worked at the museum since 1998, first as collections assistant and currently as exhibits manager. His responsibilities include designing and constructing permanent, temporary, and traveling exhibits. A second-generation University of Arkansas alumni, he has a BA in history and an MA in anthropology, both from Fayetteville. His interests include archaeology, primitive technology, and building "stuff." If it has wheels, floats, flies, or shoots, he's into it, and the older the better. He is currently recuperating from building a new house, where he lives with his five gals (spouse, two daughters, one lab, one goldie).

Education
Pody Gay, education coordinator, grew up in Little Rock, but her roots are deep in the Ozarks. Her mother was a fifth-generation Ozarker from West Fork. Pody earned her BS in park administration from the University of Missouri. She has been a park interpreter in Arkansas, Missouri, and New York. Pody moved to New Orleans to become the education coordinator for the Louisiana Nature and Science Center but after a decade in the Crescent City, the hills were calling and she moved to Northwest Arkansas in 1990. Pody brings more than 25 years of experience in coordinating education programs, managing volunteers and running nonprofit organizations. With a fairly recent "empty nest" (a son in Connecticut and a daughter in Seattle), Pody stays busy with friends and family. She loves to read, swim, play in the woods, and hang at the river.

Michelle Hearn, education assistant, was born and raised in Arkansas. She has a BA and MA in anthropology from the University of Arkansas and an MA in cinema studies from New York University. In her spare time, Michelle and husband Russell Brasel enjoy bushwhacking in search of remote waterfalls and Ozark "hollers" (especially in Newton County), collecting antique milk glass, camping, hunting down old cemeteries, and exploring the backroads and ghost towns of Northwest Arkansas.

Research Library
Marie Demeroukas, photo archivist/librarian, came to the Ozarks in 1980 and knew a good thing when she saw it. She attended the University of Arkansas with the notion of becoming an archeologist but when she took a museum-studies class, she was hooked. She brings her experience in collections management to the research library where she maintains the museum's extensive collections of photos and research materials and answers the public's inquiries about area history. Her interests include cooking, crafting, gardening, flea marketing, making wheel-thrown pottery, collecting sand, and lounging in the hammock.

Cheri Coley is the library assistant. A fifth-generation Ozarker, she was born and raised in Fayetteville. Cheri has a BA degree in sociology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and recently retired from AT&T after 30 years of service there. She is a member of Marion Chapter DAR and of Frances Ironmonger Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, and serves on the board of directors for historic McCord Cemetery near Elkins. On Monday evenings you can find Cheri volunteering with the "DAR Library Ladies" in the genealogy department of Blair Library in Fayetteville. Cheri's family includes her husband David, son Kyle, two dogs, and two cats.

LuAnn Clarkson, special project librarian, says, "I may be asked to do any number of things. Presently, I'm afloat sorting a veritable sea of photographs donated by local residents Having lived in Springdale my entire life, with a BA in political science from the University of Arkansas, it is a task I seem peculiarly well suited for, and I enjoy it very much."

Amjad Faur is the photographer. His parents—his father is from Jordan, his mother from Madison County, Arkansas—met in Italy. Amjad was born in Springdale, raised in Fayetteville, and now lives in West Fork with his wife Laila (“she’s half Iranian, therefore beautiful and brilliant by default”) and their amazing Irish Wolfhound, Bela Lugosi. Amjad has a BFA in painting from the University of Arkansas and an MFA in photography from the University of Oregon. After just a few short weeks at the Shiloh Museum, Amjad declares this is the favorite job of all the ones he has had (which range from working in a baby wipes factory to teaching at a university).

Community Outreach
Susan Young has been the outreach coordinator since 1994. She is a fifth-generation Ozarker. Before settling in the Ozarks, her kinfolk hailed from the southern Appalachians in Kentucky and Tennessee. So you see, there is no denying Susan's hillbilly roots. In fact,that heritage is something she is quite proud of and passionate about, which makes the Shiloh Museum the perfect place for Susan to hang her hat. Her areas of interest include religion, cemeteries, and traditional folkways of the Upland South. In her spare time, Susan enjoys gardening, traveling, birdwatching, and genealogy.

Secretary
Betty Bowling has worked at the Shiloh Museum longer than any other staff member, serving as the museum secretary since 1981. She maintains the membership records, types correspondence, coordinates mail-outs, sends out monthly information packets to the board of trustees, updates the museum scrapbook, and assists with the planning and presentation of museum events.

Buildings and Grounds
Marty Powers is in charge of buildings and grounds. A native of Fayetteville, Marty has deep roots in Washington County: his Mhoon ancestors were among the first settlers of the Round Mountain area east of Fayetteville, and several of his Powers ancestors were well-known stonemasons and builders in Fayetteville. A retired captain with the Fayetteville Fire Department, Marty and his wife Kendal are the parents of five daughters. Marty serves on the state board of directors for Camp Sunshine, a camp for children who have been severely burned. He is also a volunteer with Special Olympics. In his spare time, Marty enjoys hunting, fishing, and canoeing.