Alana Mallory
Alana Mallory joined the AAA staff in October 2016 as the meetings manager. In this role, Alana manages the abstract submission process for the Annual Meeting, as well as other Annual Meeting logistics. She also manages the AAA’s section spring meetings and provides guidance to section program editors and reviewers.
Prior to AAA, Alana spent five years as the meetings and education associate for America’s Essential Hospitals in Washington, DC. There, Alana was responsible for maintaining the association’s distance learning program, managing vendor logistics and speakers for the annual meeting, and planning the annual meeting celebration and bi-annual lobby days.
Alana is a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and graduated with a BS in business, hospitality and tourism management. She is also a certified wedding planner, avid moviegoer, and self-proclaimed foodie.
Leslie Walker
Leslie Walker joined the AAA staff in March 2016 as the Project Manager for the AAA’s Public Education Initiatives (PEI). These PEIs include the RACE project and World on the Move, which highlight anthropology’s distinctive perspective on race and human diversity as well as human migration and displacement for public audiences.
Before joining the AAA, Leslie was an adjunct instructor of anthropology at Prince George’s Community College. He previously worked for the National Park Service as a research anthropologist and field instructor in Washington, DC Metropolitan, Southern Florida and Puerto Rico. Leslie earned his MA in applied anthropology and a certificate in college teaching from the University of South Florida, and a BA in anthropology and Spanish from the St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Among his many interests, Leslie is an avid fan of comic books, anime, manga and graphic novels citing X-Men as the best
Lauryl Zenobi
Lauryl Zenobi joined the AAA in February 2016 as the Institutional Sales Coordinator (ISC). As the ISC, Lauryl manages the development and publication of the AnthroGuide and assists with Annual Meeting planning.
Lauryl is a recent arrival to DC from Seattle, where she is working on her PhD in Archaeology from U Washington. She received her MA in Archaeology from U Washington in 2015, and her BA in Anthropology from U Hawaii in her hometown of Hilo. Her dissertation research focuses on the growth of the Dutch spice trade in Indonesia during the colonial period, and its impact on staple foods and the ceramics used to process those foods.
Before joining the AAA, Lauryl worked as an archaeologist in Hawaii, and as the Archaeology outreach coordinator at the Burke Museum in Seattle. There she developed educational materials, planned museum events, engaged the public with archaeology, and helped manage archaeology collections.
When not brainstorming ways to make the AnthroGuide even better, Lauryl spends her time doing yoga, rock-climbing (like any good Seattleite), and exploring DC. She is an avid passport stamp collector and travel hacker.
Alexandra Frankel
Alexandra Frankel hails from the upper Midwest where she studied cultural anthropology at Macalester College and worked in the non-profit sector as a grant writer and program coordinator. She continued her study of cultural anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a Master’s student after a brief stint in Turkey as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant and visiting student at Bilkent University in Ankara. She developed a zeal for editing while working on texts with multimedia artists and serving as an assistant editor for the Milwaukee literary journal Cream City Review.
Alexandra joined AAA in December 2016 as the editorial assistant. In this position, she curates the Anthropology News website, works closely with AN opinion columnists, coordinates the administrative components of AN, and produces AN social media content. Alexandra also provides support to AAA’s journals and serves as the main contact for member questions on AAA publications.
You’re likely to find Alexandra bicycling around DC or with her nose stuck in a book.
Daniel Ginsberg
Daniel Ginsberg joined the AAA staff in February 2016 as AAA’s Professional Services Fellow. Daniel is responsible for managing AAA’s institutional research program about the profession of anthropology. He supports AAA services to university departments (through the Department Services Program) and to practicing and applied anthropologists, and is staff liaison to the Committee on Practicing, Applied, and Public Interest Anthropology.
Daniel graduated with his PhD in linguistics from Georgetown U in December 2015, where his dissertation was an ethnography of communication in mathematics classrooms. He also served on the Graduate Student Council of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, where he worked to promote peer support among graduate students and increase the visibility of non-academic career options for doctoral candidates. Before beginning his doctoral program, Daniel worked as a public high school ESL teacher in greater Boston, an English Language Fellow in Kragujevac, Serbia and a test developer at the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Daniel lives in the Manor Park neighborhood of Washington DC with his spouse, Meaghan O’Connor, who works for the DC Public Library; their five-year-old son, Sam; and a two-year-old Staffordshire terrier, Nahla. As he was finishing his dissertation, he worked part time as a bicycle mechanic, and narrowly missed the chance to be Bike Mechanic, PhD.
Janine Chiappa McKenna
Janine Chiappa McKenna joined the AAA staff in March 2016 as the Director of Publishing. In this role, she oversees the Association’s journal portfolio, serves as staff liaison to the Committee on the Future of Print and Electronic Publishing and the Anthropological Communication Committee, as well as other activities. She is looking forward to working with the journal editors and meeting everyone in Minneapolis in November.
Janine came to AAA from the American Psychological Association, after serving as Managing Director, Journals for one year. In that position, she maintained relationships with society and division publishing partners, including contract negotiation and editor selection. Prior to that, she served as the Journals and Publications Manager at the American Sociological Association for seven years.
Janine has a BA in English from the University of Maryland and in addition to spending time with her family (including two cats), she enjoys knitting, cooking, watching movies, and expanding her collection of vinyl records.
Aurea Martinez Velasco
Aurea Martinez Velasco joined the AAA staff in March as the Meetings Coordinator to support the execution of the 115th Annual Meeting in Minneapolis! She will be the main lead for the 2016 Annual Meeting Mobile application as well as assisting with other meeting department projects.
Born in Oaxaca, Mexico Aurea immigrated to Southern California at the age of two with her mother. She spent five years at UCSB organizing around student issues, workers’ rights and immigrant rights. After graduating with a double major in sociology and Latin American studies, she worked at the Orange County Department of Education focusing on youth leadership development. In 2014, luck or destiny led Aurea to participate in the inaugural Code for Progress (CFP) fellowship in Washington DC, introducing her to the world of technology. Before coming to AAA, Aurea spent a year advocating for the end of family detention with the Detention Watch Network.
Aurea likes to do way too many things with her free time. On Saturday she works at the Mt Pleasant or Brookland Farmers Market with Goodsense Farm. She is also co-producing a podcast about Latinas in Technology called ComadresCODE inspired by the lack of diversity in this field, and which will launch by the end of this year! Aurea resides in Washington DC where she enjoys the seasons and seeks adventures. She enjoys running and eating, preferably not in that order.
Resat Mursaloglu
Resat Mursaloglu joined the AAA staff in April 2016 as the Staff Accountant. Resat is responsible for processing all payments made to the association, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable and other day-to-day accounting operations.
Resat brings over 6 years of accounting experience in corporate and public accounting sectors where he used GAAP and a range of accounting systems, and assisted with A-133 audits and general ledger accounting. Prior to joining the AAA Resat worked as an Outsourced Accountant for the firm BDO and provided professional accounting services for non-profit associations in the DC metro area.
Resat received his dual Bachelors of Science degrees in Accounting and Finance in 2007 and received his MBA degree with concentration in Finance in 2010 from the University of New Haven.
Resat lives in the Franconia section of Alexandria, Virginia with his spouse Jennifer, who is pursuing her PhD in Education Policy from George Mason University, and their eighteen-month-old daughter Kimberly Selin. When not at the office, Resat enjoys spending time with his family, taking weekend road trips, and playing soccer and tennis.