Preserving and Cataloging CDC’s Artifacts and Key Memories
Education
I earned a B.S. in Art History and Design from the University of Wisconsin in 1982. By the late ‘80s, I was still at CNN (see below) but had begun work on a master’s degree in art in a dual Georgia State and Emory program.
Job Prior to CDC
After college, I moved to the South and began to work for Turner Broadcasting’s Cable News Network (CNN). I was CNN’s design director for both its national and international units. The network was very journalistic at the beginning and I really enjoyed the work, but boosting ratings became the network’s major priority as time went on. After my 2nd child was born in 2001, I stopped working for a while to take care of my young family.
First CDC Job
After being home with my second child for about a year, I started reaching out to people about work opportunities. Around 2002, I met with the director and deputy director of the CDC Museum which was, at that time, called the Global Health Odyssey. They needed help to organize a small mountain of donated items and boxed documents into a coherent collection, and help to preserve artifacts, and I became an unpaid volunteer and then eventually an ORISE fellow to undertake this work.
Later Jobs at CDC
After the fellowship, I was hired as a part-time contractor with the CDC museum. I increased my hours as the kids got older until, in 2008, I was working full time.
Final CDC Job
Last year, the museum was finally able to hire me directly as a full-time history specialist. I was known as the collections manager and ad hoc historian for CDC.
I catalogued all the holdings and created the museum’s permanent collection. It grew over time, and we added exhibits and an online archive. I collaborated with Dr. David Sencer, the longest-serving director of CDC, and other retirees to figure out what things meant and to document their origin and significance. We also started an oral history project to preserve institutional memory. The oral history archive, developed jointly by and housed in the Emory Library (see The Global Health Chronicles), includes stories about topics ranging from CDC’s origins in malaria control to recent global health crises. This archive can be accessed online for free. It allows people like public health experts and policy makers and historians to learn lessons from CDC’s responses to health challenges in the past.
Proudest Achievement
I’m proudest of the physical artifacts and oral history. For example, I worked on restoring documents from the Malaria Control in War Areas program—a World War II initiative within the U.S. Public Health Service that served as the predecessor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And I’m proud of filling in information that had been missing from the published record—information about what got us to the point of publication and about the personal side.
The Mary Guinan oral history stands out. She tells these great stories about the early days of the fight against AIDS—detailed and raw stories. About-on-the-ground action before there were cell phones.
And the polio stories stand out, especially the ones about starting the vaccination program in the 1950’s. As an EIS officer tells the story, the new vaccination campaign had to be stopped temporarily because one vaccine manufacturer, Cutter Laboratories, had made and distributed a batch of the Salk vaccine in which the process of inactivating the live virus proved to be defective. Vaccine oversight began there, with mechanisms like the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. One man decided not to vaccinate his children, but changed his mind, brought home a vial of vaccine and gave it to his kids, and heard about the bad batch the next morning. He went to his refrigerator and was horrified to see the batch number that had been pulled from the shelves. He described devastating anxiety; luckily, in his case, the children survived.
Impact of My Work
My most important work was making sure that things didn’t get lost, getting people to share the archives they had created for themselves, and securing the information in a place that can be accessed.
The 1st-person narratives we collected showed the paths that had to be taken to accomplish the scientific advances that are documented in the published literature. In taped interviews with leaders like CDC’s first director and the architects/managers of the campaign to eradicate smallpox, we added the human perspective to the record.
Leaving CDC
When I was terminated, I was going through backlogs of materials for the archives and items that needed conservation and repair. I was also working on an oral history project about the CDC’S COVID response and had just interviewed Demetre C. Daskalakis about his experiences during COVID.
I was notified by a short email on President’s Day of 2025. Although I had received very positive 6-month and 1-year performance reviews, the email said in effect: Thank for your service, but you’re a crappy worker, so goodbye. Fearing that something like this was in the wind, I had already cleared out my desk, but I had to come back in on Tuesday for 1 hour to turn in my ID card and computer. About a week later, I received word that I had been put on administrative leave until March 14, and then I was notified that the leave had been extended to May 5th, and then that it had been extended until further notice. On May 14, I got an email with my termination package which included my SF50 form and several other documents. My last paycheck came on May 20th.
I had no choice in the matter and no closure. After 23 years, there was no retirement party, there were no goodbyes. My husband retired 2 years ago, and at that time, I declined to retire with him because I was deeply engaged in my work. My children are on my health benefits. I was able to get insurance for them through the Exchange, but that seems to be at risk now too. Being let go with no help from the government, no reaching out from HR, nobody to help guide you…I wouldn’t have known half of what I did without the social media threads created by colleagues who were also terminated.
Other Comments
Going back to CDC would have to be under a different administration. This one has no foresight; it puts no thought into what it’s doing. And I’ve seen people who have gone back only to get riffed 2 weeks later.
I feel terrified for the country, as I see history being convoluted. My work in oral history was just the opposite—first-hand accounts from the primary people who actually worked in public health. I’m resting right now. It was a hellish ride. I don’t want to go through the uncertainty and fear again. None of this feels complete, right, legal, kind, or thoughtful.