Paleontology Volunteers

Wayne Callahan has been a volunteer in VP since his retirement in February 2012. Wayne first became interested in fossils and dinosaurs at 8 years old, and his parents took him to visit the AMNH and bought him a copy of Roy Chapman Andrew’s All About Dinosaurs. At the age of 17 Wayne and his best friend found some fossil shells in the glacial drift of northern New Jersey, brought them to the Newark Museum, and began a lifelong interest in geology and paleontology.

Wayne’s career was in manufacturing engineering, but he continued to pursue his interest in paleontology in the graduate program in geoscience at Montclair State College. Over the next 45 years he collected and studied fossils, collaborated on fieldtrip guides, scientific papers and abstracts. Wayne has been a Research Associate in paleontology at the New Jersey State Museum for over 25 years and is a member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. 

Nate is a writer and professor who spends his spare time volunteering in the Vertebrate Paleontology fossil preparation laboratory. He got his passion for paleontology growing up in Pittsburgh when his mom would take him fossil hunting on the side of the road. 

Joe has a degree in engineering and an M.S. from Long Island University. He began volunteering at the AMNH in 1999, after his retirement from Verizon. Joe works on data entry for the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology and also volunteers his time at the New York Botanical Garden.

Ellen has been volunteering at the museum since 1996, contributing to a number of departments along the way. She has staffed the information desk; worked as an explainer in the Fossils Hall and in the Butterflies exhibit; assisted in the Exhibitions department; and staged, photographed, and databased bees, grasshoppers and marine invertebrates in Invertebrate Zoology. She currently volunteers in Invertebrate Paleontology helping clean, rehouse, database, and photograph specimens.

Having grown up in New York City, Alice visited the Amerian Museum of Natural History with her school and parents and as an adult has been to many special exhibits with her husband.

She retired after working thirty years in research laboratories followed by ten years as an administrative assistant in a busy field office in a NYC park. Because she had worked in scientific institutions and had also interacted with the public in her administrative job, Alice thought she might volunteer at the AMNH. 

Salema works at Stony Brook University running the Medical School Laboratories and Archives. She has volunteered at AMNH since 2011 as an explainer and has worked in many different exhibits including Food, Colors, Cuba, Bioluminescence, Spiders, Life at the Limits, Butterflies, Human Origins, and the fossil halls. She now also volunteers in Invertebrate Paleontology, rehousing fossil corals. She spends her free time at the beaches on Long Island, playing the cello, reading lots of science books, and playing with model trains. She calls AMNH her “Happy Place.” Her favorite dinosaur is Stegosaurus.

Juan grew up in NYC, and as an adult worked as an aircraft mechanic for Pan Am. He has a degree in computer science from Saint Peter's College and an aircraft mechanics license from Teterboro School of Aeronautics, also working in the computer field when there were down turns in the airline industry. He eventually finished his pilot ratings, becoming a professional pilot at age 40 and flying for Southwest Airlines.

In anticipation of retirement, he pursued a degree in geology and a masters in education at New Jersey City University, and now teaches aviation maintenance at NYC Aviation High School. He has been going to the American Museum of Natural History since age seven when his aunt first took him, and loved it ever since, seeing it as a window to a much bigger world than what he was exposed to growing up in the NY area - he has even hiked many of the nation's great national parks thanks to the inspiration he got from the exhibits.

A practicing architect and aspiring paleontologist, Channing Redford has enjoyed working in the Division of Paleontology since 2011. She has helped to survey the FARB collection and update the inventory, while occasionally re-housing old specimens or labeling new acquisitions. Assisting with the collection has been an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the evolution of species, specimen care and how AMNH scientists conduct and present their research. A Fossil Explainer on the fourth floor since 2006, Channing has served also as an Explainer for exhibits such as “Traveling the Silk Road” and “Brain,” and for AMNH Sleepovers, Halloween parties and special events.

Erin Willigan volunteers at the American Museum of Natural History’s Invertebrate Paleontology Department, where she is assisting with the deployment of artificial intelligence to process specimen photographs and generate metadata for the museum’s database. This work supports the digitization of the fossil collection, making it more accessible for research. She also helps clean and rehouse specimens to ensure their long-term preservation.

Since 2016, Erin has volunteered with the museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, focusing on community-based conservation, and with the Invertebrate Zoology Department, contributing to digitization projects. Erin also serves as the Executive Director of Saving Nature, a non-profit focused on preventing extinctions and fighting climate change.