Dr. Heather K. Calloway is currently serving as the Executive Director of University Collections at Indiana University. Her position has broad responsibility for the stewardship of IU’s myriad collections, consistent with the university’s teaching, research, and service missions.
In 2022, her team opened a new teaching, research and exhibit space in the recently renovated historic McCalla School in Bloomington, Indiana. In this space students, scholars and community members engage with artifacts, art, and other historic items from the vast collections at IU.
Heather’s research focus is in preserving fraternal and religious memorabilia and collections. In 2021, she founded the Center for Fraternal Collections & Research at Indiana University and began a concentrated effort to collect and preserve the history and material culture of underrepresented fraternal groups.
Her research also includes finding innovative ways to engage new audiences with primary sources and collections. She works with students to utilize augmented and virtual reality with artifacts. Heather has taught college courses on research skills, genealogy, archives, preserving family heirlooms, museums and digitization, and collections.
She cofounded (with colleague Raven Bishop) of The Augmented Archives Project, an initiative designed to leverage emerging technologies to increase access to and engagement with primary source materials. Their project was awarded a 2018 Campus Technology Impact Award in the category of Education Futurists.
She spent 14 years at the headquarters of the Scottish Rite Freemasons in Washington, D.C., as the Museum Curator and Managing Director of Digital & Social Media. Under her direction, new approaches to museum tours, exhibits and collection access were instituted as a renewed public became interested in Freemasonry. Previously she also held the positions as the inaugural archivist for the Archives & Special Collections at Washington College, the University Archivist for the Perdue Museum and Archives (yes, that chicken 🐓 company!) at Salisbury University and as the Librarian/Archivist for the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, D.C.
Heather has a doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds a master’s degree in Library Science, from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she specialized in archives and a second master’s degree in theological studies from the Iliff School of Theology (Denver, Colorado) where she specialized in fraternal and religious organizations. She earned her BA at the University of New Mexico in Religious Studies and Political Science. Heather’s articles have appeared in various publications and she regularly presents lectures focused on preserving and caring for archival, museum and library collections. Heather is widely recognized in the archival profession for her leadership in preserving little known unique collections. She has spoken to numerous fraternal organizations, taught community groups preservation skills, and lectured to international audiences on this and related topics.
A member of the Cherokee Nation, Heather is a native New Mexican, born and raised in Albuquerque. She serves on the national Board of the Archives for the Episcopal Church, is a co-founder and director for the Historical Society for American Fraternalism and a board member for the J.H. Rathbone Museum and Resource Center. Heather is an active volunteer with Alpha Chi Omega and was awarded Outstanding Organization Advisor in 2016 and 2018.