Faces of the Museum

Our Museum staff spans many areas of expertise, from art history to plant-based crafts. But when it comes to bees, we call one man above all: Jeff Perez.

As the Museum’s beekeeper, or apiarist, Jeff graciously tends to our observation beehive. In addition to running his own stinging insect removal service, he recaptures our bees when they swarm and guides us in their care.

Jeff began his apiary affair right here at the Museum. When he took a Cabrillo College course on welding in part of his ongoing work for the National Marine Fisheries in 2007, he sat beside a former Museum employee, who persuaded him to come meet our bees.

It didn’t take much persuading, after all, and Jeff took the job soon after. Today, he is both beekeeper and bee ambassador.

“People, in general, don’t know a whole lot about bees,” Jeff said during our hive’s most recent swarm. “And that’s part of the fun of this – I get to be an educator!”

Even surrounded by a cloud of bees, their buzzing drowning out all background noise, Jeff remains an educator. “They won’t sting unless they get caught in your hair or clothing,” he added, while explaining that bees communicate information about food and potential, new colony locations in the surrounding area by dancing.

When asked what he enjoys most about working with these impressive insects, Jeff looked up from a box of artificial honeycomb and grinned. “Actually, I pretty much love it all.”

Meet Marisa: author, certified naturalist, seasoned trivia host, and procurer of art-friendly plant materials. Marisa has elevated the Museum by wearing many hats over the years, but we now know her as our Education Coordinator – a role she’s held since 2016. (Note: Marisa currently holds the role of Community Education and Collaboration Manager)

If you’ve enjoyed the Museum’s social media posts, then you’ve already seen Marisa’s handiwork at play. As the voice of our social media, she keeps our digital community abreast of the Museum’s many events, and helps others to forge connections with nature before they even walk through our doors.

She also leads the Museum’s onsite school programs, coordinates group visits, helps orchestrate our public programs, and specializes in immersing our visitors in the culture and stewardship practices of the native people of Santa Cruz, the Amah Mutsun.

Marisa first joined our team as a volunteer in 2013, shortly after earning her B.A. in creative writing from San Jose State University. She came to the Museum to learn the area, meet new people and conduct research for her writing. She soon discovered her passion for teaching others about the traditions of Santa Cruz’s native people when she became a docent.

Today, Marisa is a certified naturalist under the University of California’s Naturalist Program. She helps to educate the Museum’s team of docents, and strives to help others learn and make use of traditional knowledge bestowed by native cultures of Santa Cruz.

“I’m most proud of our new program series, Amah Mutsun: Then and Now,” she said. “By visiting areas of cultural significance and using native plants to create pieces of art, we connect our community with the native people of this amazing place we call home in a way that empowers and amplifies the voices of the Amah Mutsun.”

Her expertise extends beyond natural history, though, and well into the world of trivia. As occasional trivia host to Santa Cruz’s Red Room, 99 Bottles and the Museum over the past five years, Marisa has generated thousands of trivia questions spanning a variety of subjects.

She’s especially fascinated by the connections people form with plants, be they for art, tool use or nourishment. Marisa aims to forge those connections through our many workshops, where visitors can get their hands dirty by extracting natural dyes, weaving baskets, or printing unique images of local algae, among other activities.

“When people rely on something,” she said, “they’re more likely to care about it. And stewardship starts with that initial connection. The greater the connection, the more likely you are to protect it when it’s threatened.”

This post was updated on October 2022 to list Marisa’s current title.

Joanne Curby is a familiar face around our beloved Seabright neighborhood. She is our liaison with the Seabright Neighborhood Association, which is a co-sponsor of the June 23rd Summer Kick-Off Festival.

Joanne, who is a member of the Museum’s Pat & Kirk Smith Club, is a key link between the Museum and residents who live in the charming homes surrounding our historic building and adjacent Tyrrell Park.

“The Museum is the gem of our neighborhood—a place you can come to both enjoy and take something away,” Joanne said. “When you come though the doors of this place, you will learn something or see something very interesting, and sometimes even astonishing.”

Joanne is fond of Albert Einstein’s quote: “Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better.”

A Seabrightan since 1991, Joanne retired in 2007 from a 27-year career serving the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department at the Louden Nelson Community Center, where she enjoyed maintaining the facility and spending time with seniors, veterans and other frequent visitors to the center.

Joanne enjoys taking care of summer homes for neighbors and looking in on older friends. An open-water swimmer, Joanne also is a member of the Swimming Masters Program at UC Santa Cruz and she climbs at Seabright’s Pacific Edge, which like the Neighborhood Association is a Member of the Museum’s Business Partnership Program.

Thank you for all your support, Joanne!

Spencer Klinefelter, the newest member of the Museum team, has been teaching summer camps and outdoor education since he was 16.

As the Museum’s Education Assistant, Spencer runs field programs for local elementary schools, develops curricula for classroom kits, and is a leader at Spring Camp. He also helps Earth Stewards Project partnership with Ponderosa High School plant seeds in the Museum’s new Native Plant Demonstration Garden, and other projects across the City.

Edit: We are proud to acknowledge Spencer’s skills as an educator, and have promoted him to the position of Education Coordinator. In this role, Spencer works with teachers to plan their field trips, creates curriculum, and continues to teach programs.

Spencer grew up near Sacramento and attended UC Santa Cruz, graduating in 2016 with a double major in environmental studies and education. He joined the Museum staff part-time in December and will rejoin the team in September once school programs resume. Spencer’s dedication to connecting students with nature extends to his work with Kids in Nature, a local after school program.

“The most rewarding aspect of leading the field programs is watching eyes light up at the sight of a hawk, or hearing that a student can’t wait to return and explore the place further,” Spencer said. “Fostering that curiosity is a gratifying experience.”

As our Collections Specialist, Kathleen Aston’s job is to manage the 16,000-plus items in the Museum’s collections, which include specimens, artifacts and objects running the gamut of natural history. To name just a few, the collections include fossils, shells, rocks and minerals, taxidermy, baskets and items of archaeological significance to early Santa Cruz history.

Kathleen joined the Museum in February 2016 as an intern cataloguing items in the pottery collection and trained with then Collections Specialist Chloe Marquart before assuming her current role in February 2017. Kathleen leads efforts to digitize documentation of collections items and re-inventory the collections, and is the main point of contact for any collections-related inquiries.

“We would really like to open our collections more to the public with a forward-facing digital catalog that can be a reference point and research point,” Kathleen said.  

A native of the East Bay, Kathleen first became interested in natural history after attending the Lindsay Wildlife Experience—formerly known as the Lindsay Wildlife Museum—in Walnut Creek. She has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and is working on a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Washington.

“I’m interested in how we relate to objects and how they help us understand things,” she said. “I am excited to be working with the physical collections and look forward to sharing them with our Members and the public.”

The older Tyler Falls gets, the more the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History means to him.

Just 12 when his family relocated to the Seabright neighborhood of Santa Cruz, Tyler started visiting the Museum regularly, each time learning something new as he explored the changing exhibits. He remembers getting hooked on aspects of the region’s natural history or fascinated by nature-inspired art that graced the gallery walls.

“It’s just a really cool neighborhood museum,” said Tyler. “More and more, museums are very big in size. You don’t see many museums like this anymore.”

Eventually his family became Museum Members and his visits became more regular — every Saturday in fact, to help Education Manager Felicia Van Stolk feed tide pool animals featured in the Santa Cruz Naturalist Exhibit. And earlier this year, Tyler, now 14, and his mother, Connie Corona, were trained as docents to help with school programs and volunteer for future mobile museum outings.

Connie said the Museum helped the family learn about their new hometown, both through interesting talks and Museum-guided hikes in local open spaces.

“For anyone who wants to know about our region’s natural history, this is a huge gem,” Connie said, noting the Museum’s geology exhibit. “We learned that the entire area was once underwater.”

Starting with the new intertidal touch pools, Tyler said he has noticed a lot of change at the Museum since he first stepped inside in 2015. “In just the short time we have been coming here, the Museum has grown a lot,” he said. “It’s more open and modern.”

Now that Tyler is a little older, he and Connie also have been attending monthly Naturalist Night presentations on various natural history topics, which provides them even more content-rich knowledge for volunteering as docents.

“For any teenager who is interested in the natural world, there is no better way to spend an evening,” Connie said. “The programs are short and chocked full of information. Being a part of the Museum has been such a great experience for us.”

Angela Ward brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit administration and education to her role as Director of Operations at the Museum.

Hired as our administrative coordinator in January 2015, Angela is entering her seventh year working for the Museum, where she oversees finance and human resources. Angela earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology and linguistics, and later became certified to teach English as a second language.

A West Coast native, Angela worked trails in Yosemite National Park and then returned as a backcountry trail cook before taking a job at a one-room elementary school in the park. She later worked for a local health-oriented nonprofit before pursuing a position at the Museum, whose mission was a natural draw.

“In an increasingly digital world, we need to take time to interact with our environment,” Angela said. “The Museum helps to supplement science education offered in the public school system, the way community arts programs offer immersive experiences in the arts. The Museum helps us learn to care for and explore where we live.”

Angela has been impressed by how much the Museum has expanded and fine-tuned its programming and exhibits since she and her son first visited about fifteen years ago. Even though Angela is not directly involved in programming, her experience as a bilingual educator is an asset as new initiatives arise.

“I am excited that we are working to expand our reach by improving access to our native Spanish-speaking communities,” Angela said.

Linda Bailey knows the real value of her neighborhood.

A leading real estate broker in Seabright, the Museum’s neighborhood in Santa Cruz, Linda believes strongly in reinvesting in the community where she lives and works. That’s why she joined the Museum’s Business Partnership Program, opting to donate a portion of the proceeds from each real estate transaction she closes in Seabright back to the Museum.

“This is such a jewel for our neighborhood—a wonderful place to bring your children, learn more about the nature around you, and gather with your friends and family members,” Linda said. “Seabright just wouldn’t be as special as it is without the Museum. I am happy to support their efforts, and urge my clients and friends to join as Members.”

Linda was the primary sponsor of the Museum’s Summer Kick-Off Festival in June and also supported our celebration in April of “Santa Cruz’s Seabright,” an Arcadia Publishing book about the neighborhood’s history. Proceeds from the book benefit the Museum. Linda works at Vanguard Realtors, which supported The Art of Nature exhibit, also in April.

Read more about Linda and the Business Partnership Program.

As Community Relations Manager, J.M. Brown manages the Museum’s Business Partnership Program, media relations and facility rentals.

Working closely with the Development, Education and Visitors Services teams, J.M. also organizes special events, such as the annual Patrons Reception, exhibit openings, and community celebrations. J.M. joined the Museum in October 2016 after working many years in print journalism and public relations.

Although this is J.M.’s first time working for a museum, he is passionate about stewarding parks and open spaces and is particularly interested in the intersection of art and nature. He is a member of the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Commission and chairs the Arts Council Santa Cruz County Board of Directors.

“I’m so energized by the fondness and appreciation that our community shows for the Museum, and am inspired everyday by the creativity and expertise demonstrated by my colleagues,” J.M. said. “And it’s especially wonderful to see someone’s face light up when they visit the Museum for the first time and recognize all the amazing changes that have been made in the last couple of years.”

J.M. is a graduate of Indiana University’s School of Journalism in his hometown of Indianapolis. He lives in the Seabright neighborhood of Santa Cruz and is a marathon runner.

Donna Meyers joined the Museum’s Board of Directors in 2011 and has served as Board President since 2014. She brings a wealth of knowledge about natural resource management to her volunteer role on the Board.

Through her company Conservation Collaborative, Donna has worked as a watershed consultant on numerous projects to restore coastal habitats and regional waterways, including the Salinas and Carmel rivers. Previously, Donna served as the Director of Conservation for the Big Sur Land Trust and as the West Coast Regional Water Quality Coordinator for the National Marine Sanctuary Program.

A Sacramento area native, Donna first visited the Museum as a student at UC Santa Cruz, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology before going on to earn a master’s degree in environmental management and planning from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She later joined the Museum as a Member, and for more than 20 years had been enjoying its exhibits and programming when she was approached about joining the Board.

“I just always thought of it as an important community institution,” Donna said, explaining that she has seen the Museum’s relevance increase even more in recent years. “There is more interest in science and natural history in our society these days, and we are starting to fulfill that educational role more prominently. We are just becoming that place where people go to learn about natural history.”

As a woman trained in the sciences, Donna said her dedication to volunteering at the Museum is inspired by its founder, lighthouse keeper and naturalist Laura Hecox, who educated locals and visitors alike about the natural wonders of Santa Cruz more than 110 years ago.

“We are really promoting that legacy of women in science and learning that needs to be maintained and carried forward today,” Donna said. “There is a need to keep people educated in an affordable and accessible way about science and how we manage our resources.”

A 34-year resident of Santa Cruz, Donna also serves as chair of the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission and is an avid hiker and surfer.