Brianna Treleven, M.L.I.S., ‘16, credits her early career success to the wide range of classes offered at Kent State while obtaining her Master of Library and Information Science.
She recently became the Executive Director at the Shaker Historical Society in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a non-profit organization that provides stewardship for the region’s significant history. In this role, she’s the public face of the museum. Her duties include fundraising, writing grants, curating exhibits, managing the collection, developing and marketing events and educational programming, fostering relationships and collaborations with other community organizations and working with the board of directors to move the organization forward.
Those were all things she learned at Kent State.
“Not only did I learn the basics of collections and archives management, but I also learned how to communicate with diverse audiences, write an exhibit script, handle and label objects and physically care for objects, among many other skills,” Treleven said. “These are invaluable in my current position as a new museum director managing all of these areas at a small museum.”
Treleven chose to pursue her M.L.I.S. after feeling disconnected from her undergraduate major. She spent a couple of years interning at museums, which helped shape her career goals to work in a museum or special collections.
“The biggest advantage of the M.L.I.S. program was being able to mix and match courses instead of being confined to one track,” Treleven said. “… Kent State's M.L.I.S. program was flexible and affordable, and I knew the variety of courses offered would better prepare me for a wide range of career opportunities.”
Treleven chose the track of museum studies, archives and special collections, which prepared for different opportunities after earning her graduate degree.
During her time at Kent State, Treleven worked in the Reinberger Children’s Library Center, housed in the third floor of the Kent State Library. There, she helped the Center as it transitioned from a model library to a research collection and facility.
“I was able to apply what I was learning in my classes and get extensive hands-on experience in a diverse and unique special collection,” Treleven said. “More importantly, it helped shape my views on accessibility and inclusion that have carried over into my professional life. Assisting with the Virginia Hamilton Conference, the Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium and the Albers and Marantz Research Fellows truly opened my eyes to the importance of inclusion and representation in collections and exhibitions.”
Prior to this position, she worked as a project cataloguer at the Andy Warhol Museum and served as an Ohio History Service Corps Local History Member in Northeast Ohio.