"My undergraduate degree is in art history, and I had intended to go that route for graduate school as well. The summer before graduation I made a split second decision to go on a field school in archaeology, a six-week class in field methods, and see what happened. I wanted to make sure I had no regrets before I picked a program for my master's.

"I ended up changing my entire career path so I could get my graduate degree in anthropology. Archaeology is one of four major subfields in anthropology," said Ms. Domeischel.

However, she knew she wanted to work in a museum because "the job of an archaeologist often doesn't extend to long-term care of collections." This also correlated to her getting a degree in museum studies.

"Between Jenna and I, we interact with thousands of non-ENMU visitors each year and are often the only face of ENMU that visitors see," said George Crawford, director of the Blackwater Draw Archaeological Site and Museum.

"Jenna is an experienced field archaeologist and has a second master's degree in Museum Studies making her an ideal person for this important position. Although we have just begun working together, I can say Jenna is a dynamic personality who brings a positive perspective to the position.

"The museum has gained a vibrancy and fresh, positive atmosphere. Jenna is able to coherently translate this feeling and her extensive knowledge of her subject to the general public. We are currently working to design a new museum and she is proving, not only to be very knowledgeable, but also willing to learn new things as we move forward."

She has her undergraduate degree in art history at Columbia College in Chicago. Her two master's degrees are from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. They are in anthropology (subfield archaeology) and in museum studies, with a focus in collections management.

Before coming to Eastern, she was a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and worked as a graduate research assistant for two years at the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey.

Her favorite artifacts are bones, however, she finds all artifacts interesting

"I think bones can tell you more about a site than lithics (stone tools and points) or ceramics (pottery) ever could. Believe it or not, bones and teeth of animals at archaeological sites can tell us the season of their death, how old the animals were, how they were butchered (did they take all the meat? only certain parts?) and even what those animals ate. This helps us reconstruct environments and the subsistence patterns of people, which is how they ate and lived," said Ms. Domeischel.

The time period she finds most interesting is the Paleoindian Period, which includes Clovis and Folsom, the two oldest accepted cultures in North America. Clovis has been determined to be upwards of 12,000 BP (before present) and Folsom 10,000 BP.

"I'm most interested in these cultures, rather than the later, better-understood groups, because their lives are vastly different from our own in ways that later cultures are not. Clovis people hunted mammoth, an extinct animal, and Folsom people hunted a large, extinct bison species, Bison antiques. Their environment, at the end of an ice age, is in opposition to our environment now--during a period of global warming, rather than cooling. Later people had landscapes and subsistence strategies that would be more familiar to us," said Ms. Domeischel.

"I would love to be able to see some of the early hominid collections housed at the Smithsonian and the British Museum, among others. The opportunity has yet to present itself!" said the curator.

Dr. Leland Bement at the University of Oklahoma can be credited for bringing Ms. Domeischel into the field of archaeology. "He was the archaeologist leading the field school I attended in 2011, the summer before I graduated from my undergraduate program. He gave me an appreciation for archaeology, especially for bones!

"Before then, I didn't even know the difference between paleontology and archaeology, which is pretty common. Most people don't realize that archaeologists do not dig up dinosaurs. We leave that to the paleontologists! We only deal with materials and sites that are associated with people in some way. Dr. Bement also does a lot of work at sites dated to the Paleoindian Period, which is probably where that interest came from, as well."

She grew up in rural Illinois but also spent her early adulthood in Long Island, N.Y. "I feel like I'm from both places, as they both feel like home. Living in Illinois as a kid was amazing; most of the area was still open prairie. Even half our subdivision was grassland and I spent almost all of my time outside: in trees, in fields, and generally out of sight. "In contrast, living on Long Island means that you are never more than a few miles from the beach. Illinois gave me an appreciation for open spaces, while New York was where I found my first Native American artifacts: paint pots washed up on the shore, along with beautiful purple and blue Historic era beach glass."

Ms. Domeischel is an avid reader and user of Netflix for crime shows. She also has a National Parks Passport and is trying to go to every park in the country. "I can't say no to anything with fur. Consequently, my home often resembles a zoo."

"Between Jenna and I, we interact with thousands of non-ENMU visitors each year and are often the only face of ENMU that visitors see. Jenna is an experienced field archaeologist and has a second Master's degree in Museum Studies making her an ideal person for this important position. Although we have just begun working together, I can say she is a dynamic personality who brings a positive perspective to the position. For the first time in many years, the museum has gained a vibrancy and fresh, positive atmosphere. Jenna is able to coherently translate this feeling and her extensive knowledge of her subject to the general public. We are currently working to design a new museum and she is proving, not only to be very knowledgeable, but also willing to learn new things as we move forward." - George Crawford