Jessie Merriam

Jessie has her Masters in Heritage Studies and Public History from the University of Minnesota and works on the history of neighborhoods impacted by highways and urban renewal efforts. She has mostly worked with art, as a printmaker and instructor at Fireweed Community Woodshop, and with food— in food service, cultivation, and research. After three winters conducting wild food harvest surveys in rural Alaskan communities, she learned how powerful the sharing of stories, craft, and food, can be in preserving collective history and powerful land stewardship practices. Jessie is interested in using community archives, oral history, and story-telling with maps to empower communities and use public history to affect policy and encourage more sustainable ecological relationships.

In her free time she enjoys cooking with friends, bike adventures, learning about bogs, and drawing rabbits.