Career Resources  

In addition to OHMA resources we encourage alums to visit the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni site as well as the Center for Career Education  for even more information and resources.

Alumni Updates

OHMA alumni are integral to the success of our program and its students. We would love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to stop by, call, or email and remember that our workshops are always open to the public!

If you're changing careers, addresses, places of employment or have any other updates please don't forget to update your information on the GSAS Alumni page. Also, shoot us an email if you have a minute, because we would love to hear from you in person!

Giving to OHMA  

We'd love to have your support! All donations are tagged for OHMA Student Funding so please support equipping our future researchers with great qualitative skills! Donations are tax deductible and we encourage you to check with your company about "matching funds."

If you would like to donate to OHMA please click on the following link and select ‘Oral History Master of the Arts Program’ from the ‘select a designation’ drop down list.

OHMA Columbia University Giving

Alumni FAQ  

Email Expiration and Forwarding: There are a few options detailed at this CUIT page. The basics are listed below:

• Access to all services remains unchanged for 3 months following your graduation date.
• Approximately 9 months after graduation your UNI will expire, so make sure you save all your info to another account before this happens (we recommend doing so before the first 3 months are up).
• See alumni email forwarding on how to keep using your uni email account after these dates.

We encourage you to get yourself set up as an alumni so you have access to all alumni computing services.

Meet Our Alumni

Sang Yi (Cindy) Choung’s past experience includes work as a Film Festival Coordinator/Administrative Assistant for Columbia’s Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion and project coordinator with Voice of Witness. While at OHMA, her research culminated in a master’s thesis entitled, “Eight Million Stories: An Annotated Transcript of the Film”.  Cindy is currently interning as an Editorial Coordinator at the West Point Center for Oral History.

Andrea Dixon came to OHMA from Emory University where she received her B.A. in Political Science.  Her previous experience includes internship work in public media production and distribution at Georgia Public Broadcasting as well as with the public radio program ‘This American Life’.  While at OHMA, her research culminated in a master’s thesis entitled, “Network Lives:  Cognitive Sociograms as Present in the Oral Histories of Seven Former PEG Students”.  She is currently a PhD candidate at the Columbia School of Journalism.

Sarah Dziedzic came to OHMA from Columbia University with a degree in English and Creative Writing. Her previous experience includes managing an oral history project at Wave Hill, a public garden in the Bronx, which documents the role of the institution in open space preservation, horticulture and environmental education. She has also done environmental outreach in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma and, as a member of the Oral Historians for Social Justice network, advocates for new methodologies for studying landscape. While a student at OHMA, her research culminated in a masters thesis entitled: "Grant's Toub:  An Oral History at a Commemorative Landscape".  She is currently working at the Center for Oral History as the Project Coordinator for the Carnegie Corporation project and sits on the board of Seven Stories Institute, an organization that increases accessibility to books about alternatives to current governmental policies and attitudes. 

Kimberly Johnson’s past experience includes work for Music Education Abroad and the New York Historical Society. While at OHMA, her research culminated in a master’s thesis entitled, “The Watson Fellowship:  A Comparative Study of Travel Narratives (1977-2008)”.  She is currently working at Columbia University as an Administrative Assistant.

Anna Kaplan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill majoring in Anthropology and minoring in both Creative Writing and Folklore.  In the past she has worked for the Restoration Department of the Atlanta Fox Theatre as an Oral Historian. While at OHMA, her research culminated in a master’s thesis entitled, “Through the Doorway of Higher Education:  Multiple Generations Remembering the Integration of the University of Mississippi”. Since graduation, she has worked for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as a Participant Assistant for the 2011 Festival Program “Rhythm and Blues:  Tell It Like It Is.” She is currently a Transcriber and Archivist for the Bertha Holt Estate.

Svetlana Kitto works as a writer, teacher and oral historian in New York City. She has an MA in Oral History from Columbia University, and currently works as the project lead on an oral history project with Jewish Theological Seminary; and as an interviewer on the Brooklyn Historical Society's Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations Oral History Project, which examines the history and experiences of mixed-heritage people and families in Brooklyn. She has taught oral history and creative writing workshops at a homeless youth drop-in center in Chinatown, NYC, a high school in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, and at the Asian American Writers Workshop. She is the writer, most recently, of an essay in Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America, published by Verso Books in December 2011.

Ellen Klemme graduated from Carleton College with BAs in History and Pre-Medical Studies and had lived across the Midwest and Middle East before arriving at Columbia's OHMA program. She studies Palestinian history; her Masters thesis investigated the practice of listening to archival oral histories, specifically paramedics' memories of responding to the collapsing World Trade Towers on September 11th, 2001. After graduating from OHMA, Ellen was the primary editor of Cesare Civetta's book "Perspectives on Toscanini" and lectured about her research at Columbia University's 2011 Oral History Summer Institute, "Rethinking 9/11: Life Stories, Cultural Memory and the Politics of Representation." She is currently living in Minnesota, developing and coordinating a tutoring program for impoverished teenagers through AmeriCorps VISTA.

Elizabeth Stela McDonald came to OHMA from the New School University where she received her BA in anthropology.   Her experience includes work as a folk Arts Coordinator at the Brooklyn Arts Council. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil conducting oral history interviews with individuals from the Japanese community, focusing on their experience as students and teachers of Taiko drumming and Japanese traditional music.

Clare Oh graduated from New York University with a B.S. in Mass Media and Communications as well as from New School University with a Master of Arts in International Affairs. In the past, she has served as the Assistant Director for Strategic Communications in the Office of Communications at Columbia University, a Communications Specialist/Science Writer for the Earth Institute, Content Manager for NetAid, Staff Writer/News Producer for the Washingtonpost.com, and Freelance writer and communications consultant. While at OHMA, her research centered around "Narrative Crisis" in people with mental illness who struggle with losing and re-taking control of the "authorship" of their own life stories. She is currently the Senior Director of Communications at the Columbia University Medical Center.

April Reynosa studied Sociocultural Anthropology and Human Development at Brigham Young University. As a recipient of BYU’s ORCA Research Grant and as the Child Development Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee Boston’s literacy program, April conducted ethnographic research on Somali Bantu Refugee Women’s perception of urban space. As an OHMA student and Curriculum Developer for the Mexican Education Foundation of New York, April conducted life history interviews with Mexican-American youth which culminated into a thesis entitled, "In Between Narratives: Examples of Hybrdity in the Oral Histories of Three Mexican American Youth Living in New York City." April's research explored hybridity and a possible third option of identity formation in which the individual does not feel they must choose between cultures. April recently worked as an interviewer for the Brooklyn Historical Society's oral history project, Crossing Borders Bridging Generations. She is also a Concordia University Oral History Affiliate. April is currently living in Argentina with her husband and their one year old daughter.

Molly Rosner came to OHMA from Wesleyan University where she majored in American Studies. As an undergraduate Molly worked with documentary film makers Judith Helfand and Dan Gold on a film entitled "Everything's Cool," about the politics surrounding Global Warming. Other past experience includes work at the American Social History Project and freelance research for the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum. Currently, she a Documents Research Associate at The American Legacy Foundation.

Phil Sandick came to OHMA from Columbia College (Class of 2005) where he studied Philosophy, Sociology, and Psychology. Before returning to Columbia, Phil spent two and a half years living in Botswana.  He wrote the oral history of a private, non-racial secondary school (high school) in Gaborone, Botswana, Maru-a-Pula School, where he also taught Southern African history. Phil is currently enrolled in a joint J.D./LL.M. in International Human Rights at Northwestern School of Law.  His recent work focuses on two topics: corporate liability under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute and interview methods used in the collection of evidence at international criminal tribunals.

Marie Scatena came to OHMA from The University of Illinois at Chicago where she studied Modern European History and American Literature. Before joining us at Columbia, Marie worked in museum education at the Chicago History Museum. There, as a former classroom teacher and youth advocate, she developed and implemented programs with teenagers and oral history. These programs made significant contributions to recent exhibitions, interpretative youth performances, and created new historical sources archived at the Chicago History Museum. While at OHMA, her research culminated in a master's thesis entitled, "A Quest for Themselves: Teenage artists in the city".  She is currently an associate in discipline at Columbia University's Oral History Master's Program, teaching its fieldwork course as well as leading is workshops.

Lauren Taylor came to OHMA from the Columbia University School of Social Work.  Her past experience also includes working as as a liscensed clinical social worker specializing in psychiatric social work with older adults at the Service Program for Older People, a project coordinator of the Hartford Partnership Program on Aging Education, and as an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. In 2002, in conjunction with CUSSW, she made an educational film about sexuality and aging, funded by the Hartford Foundation and distributed by the New York Academy of Medicine, and in 2005 she created a second teaching film, in which she brought together young social work students and older women for a dialogue about the challenges facing women across the life span. Sparked by an invitation to speak about healthy aging to an NGO at the United Nations, she began to look at issues that face aging populations in other parts of the world. While at OHMA, her research culminated in a masters thesis entitled, " 'All my songs are in the past' Older women look back on romantic love: Nostalgia, imagination, and idealization"  She is presently continuing her work as a psychiatric social worker at the Service Program for Older people and as and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

Lance Thurner came to OHMA from Indiana University where he did his BA in History. Before the Oral History Master’s Program, Lance spent two years participating in the rebuilding process in New Orleans. His experience there, working with homeowners and volunteers, and listening to their stories of suffering, hope and struggle, led him to the study of Oral History. Lance is currently pursuing a PhD in History at Rutgers University where he studies Latin American cultural history, focusing on the transnational exchange of technology between the US and Mexico in the 20^th century.

Allison Tracy came to OHMA from the University of Nevada where she studied Sociology and English Literature. Before beginning her studies with OHMA, Allison worked for the University of Nevada Oral History Program conducting interviews for their Women’s Athletics Project.  In the past, she has also served as Community Outreach Manager and Community Relations and Development Assistant to the Committee to Aid Abused Women.  While at Columbia, her research culminated in her masters thesis entitled "I began marching: Reclaiming Narrative with the Voices of Women Organizing Project".  Currently, Allison is the operations and research coordinator for the University of Nevada Oral History Program (UNOHP).

Liza Zapol is a Documentary Producer and an Oral Historian. She creates sound, multimedia and performance on the themes of memory and place, using documentary methods. Liza has created live performance events and audio materials for the Metropolitan Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, The Rubin Museum, The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, The Skowhegan School, and collaborated on theater performances with Elevator Repair Service Company. Liza is Co-Artistic Director of the True Body Project NYC, creating interview-based artistic installations. Liza was founding artistic director of the Combustibles, a physical theater company. Liza has lectured at the New School Memory Conference (“The Museum as Ventriloquist: Oral History in the 9/11 Memorial Museum”), the NYCMER Conference (“Story, Memory, Fantasy: How to Gather Visitors’ Narratives and What to do Once You’ve Got Them”), and Columbia University (“Stores of Memory”). Liza was a teaching artist for five years, leading teacher workshops on theater and oral history in the classroom, with LeAp. She received her M.A. in Oral History at Columbia University. She earned a certificate in Physical Theatre from the London International School of Performing Arts, and a certificate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. B.A. with Honors from Northwestern University. See more at www.lizazapol.com.