Issue Contents

• President’s Letter
• Senior Editor’s Note
• Editor Highlight
• Cathleen Crain: Reflections
• A Factual and Humorous Look at 2025: A Reflection
• sNAPAshots: Reflections from behind the camera
• Simple ways you can support career readiness
• ARCN-NAPA Intern Reflections
• Organizational Relations Committee (ORC) Reflections
• Call for Volunteers – Social Media Mavens
• General Call for Volunteers and Publications

President’s letter

Dear NAPA Members, 

Another winter holiday season is upon us and it’s a time to reflect and prepare for a New Year.

My family welcomes 2026 with open arms. This past year was exceptionally hard on us — above and beyond world events, although we found ourselves up close with some of those. My oldest daughter spent a semester in Washington, D.C. and, as a federal intern, learned the words “shutdown” and “furlough” very quickly.

Seeing The District through her experience reminded me that we need our professional networks more than ever. Renewing ties among practicing and applied anthropologists keeps our networks strong. Many of you who joined NAPA at the AAA meetings in New Orleans were able to do that. The NAPA Careers Expo celebrated its 20th year, and the Governing Council was thrilled to recognize founders Dennis Weidman and Cathleen Crain with the 2025 Vision Award. The presentation of the award was made at the Opening Reception by Whitney Battle-Baptiste, now Past President of AAA, who plugged the Expo to the crowd and reminded AAA members in attendance that professional, practicing, and applied anthropologists (“PPA”) are very much a part of the future of the association.

To that end, NAPA is inviting you to participate in our 2026 theme: Human Futures. This is not just a call to think about the futures of those we study and work with, but also to think about our own future inside the discipline. NAPA is looking to break down barriers and welcome students, professionals, and academics to think alongside us about where anthropology is going in the next decade. The lessons learned from 2025, particularly the speed with which political and economic shocks can impact us, mean that anthropologists need to come together and create resources to support our work, research, and careers.

As we enter the New Year, please look for more NAPA announcements, events, and updates on this theme. Stay tuned for Professional Development workshops (expanded from the fantastic offerings at the AAA annual meetings!) and other resources. Consider joining a NAPA committee. Our Ethics, Member Relations, Organizational Relations, and other teams would love to be in touch. Remember to renew with NAPA as a Section option in 2026 — and bonus points for bringing along a colleague or student member. NAPA is growing, and we want to keep the momentum going. Reach out to me at Suanna@MyHeadFort.com if you are interested in joining one of our committees.

Finally, I wish you a peaceful and prosperous 2026. Be safe and well — and get ready to join NAPA for more in the New Year!

Best wishes,

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Contributions

Senior Editor’s Note

Author: Joshua Liggett, MS, LSSBB, CPHQ
NAPA Communications Committee Co-Chair

Dear readers,

This season is always a time of contemplation, and this year is no exception. These tumultuous times have been incredibly impactful and even damaging to our communities and friends. We can take the time to appreciate each other and join together, working for a more perfect union! We can be grateful for what we have, what we’ve learned this year, and strive for better in our communities, local and disciplinary!

NAPA Notes has established a new trajectory this year (a huge thank you to our NAPA Notes Editorial team: Sam Victor, Suzanne Hanchett, Isabela Pardo, Isabelle Boiteau, and Jacqueline Woodruff, as well as our new Comms team members Milena Stoilova and Mandy Jordan!!) and I think you will enjoy the introspective takes below. For 2026 the Comms team will be working on updates to the NAPA website, utilizing the findings of the recent ARCN Interns (whose reflections on the experience you can read below) that took a deep dive into our content and highlighted specific areas we can improve on in the new year! If you would like to join us in this work, let us know through our general volunteer application.

Have a relaxing holiday and let’s work for a better year in 2026!

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Editor Highlight

Author: Isabelle Boiteau, PhD 
NAPA Notes Editor, Communications Committee Member

I am a sociocultural anthropologist and also a recent PhD grad. My doctoral research was based out of the islands region of Papua New Guinea and focused on questions of power differentials and the various ways that these are shaped and play out through things such as secrecy, customary practices and in terms of gender relations. I also had the opportunity to explore some sensory analysis of the topic. 

I first came to anthropology through a longstanding curiosity about the world and the many ways humans inhabit it and make sense of their lives. I have maintained this deep curiosity through my research and I am now interested in the ways in which practising anthropology – through a foundational focus on deep understanding of people, communities, and issues – is a powerful means of creating positive and effective changes in our world. It’s great to be here, and I’m looking forward to the conversations and possibilities that may emerge!

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Reflections

much fun working with colleagues. It did prompt a reflection on my career as a professional anthropologist and on the work of NAPA and other organizations committed to supporting the engagement, mentoring, and development of professional, practicing, and applied (PPA) anthropologists. 

As a young (first practicing and later professional) anthropologist, I had little understanding of what I knew, my skills as an anthropologist in the world, how to talk about what I knew and could do, and what the opportunities were for a career. I also didn’t know where to find other PPA anthropologists. I felt a bit like Karana from Island of the Blue Dolphins – left alone on an island for years, learning to survive. Or like Odysseus from the Odyssey – being on a long journey to find my home while facing mythical dangers. 

I was fortunate enough to stumble on others (meeting the person who would be my future partner!) and then to groups engaged in bringing PPAs together for community and professional development. It was a heady moment when I discovered the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists (WAPA) and found companionship, professional stimulation, and skill building. I was amazed to discover the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA) and its welcome for voyagers like me. NAPA and WAPA have been my professional homes for decades. Reflecting on the important features of those homes has helped to shape my ideas of how to learn from those who are looking for a home and how to be useful in being part of a welcoming community. As a professional anthropologist, I believe that we are a community that should be active in reaching out, engaging, and providing a professional home for PPA anthropologists. And, I owe a debt to those who supported and encouraged me – paid by being an active mentor to new/young PPAs and working with others to develop important resources to encourage professional growth. 

NAPA has been particularly focused on that mission and continues to sharpen its vision and focus. I would like to reflect on a few of the ways in which NAPA has developed resources that are important to PPAs and those who may look to becoming PPAs in the future. An important feature of these resources is that they have been available to everyone to experience and use. Learning about careers, engaging with other PPAs, hearing self-reflections from PPAs, and developing new skills are all available to everyone who is or is considering a career as a PPA.  

NAPA’s Careers Expo just celebrated its 20^th anniversary. The Expo annually brings together 40-60 mid-career and senior PPAs with hundreds of attendees to talk about careers. PPAs are found in North America and across the globe in the non-profit and private sectors, and in government and quasi-governmental organizations. It is an amazing and often surprising event both for the professional participants and the new/young/transitioning anthropologists and their mentors and teachers. The flourishing diversity of the discipline brought together in one place for the sole purpose of mentoring and welcoming is remarkable. 

sNAPAshots is a singular resource for video portraits of professional and practicing anthropologists discussing  their career influences,  choices, challenges and trajectories.  (https://practicinganthropology.org/series/snapashots/) Candid conversations with individuals deeply invested in professional careers provide windows into the often winding, frequently surprising, and clearly impactful work being done by PPAs in the world. 

NAPA has organized and sponsored skills-building workshops taught by professional and practicing anthropologists at the AAA meeting and at the Society for Applied Anthropology. These workshops are intended to rapidly build knowledge and skills about career enhancing topics. This year at the AAA, for example, there were four NAPA-sponsored workshops: “Fundamentals of AI”;  “Augmenting Anthropological Research with AI – Hands-On Strategies for Ethical, Impactful Practice”; “How to Facilitate Workshops that Drive Innovation”; and, “Fundamentals of Storytelling”. Eighty-five people signed up for these low-cost, high return workshops in New Orleans. These trainings are an example of how NAPA stays closely in touch with PPAs and develops resources responding to their professional development needs. 

NAPA has developed and widely shared new standards for professional, practicing and applied anthropologists. The standards are intended to be a framework that can be used to guide our work. (https://practicinganthropology.org/blog/napa-has-standards-webinar/) These standards, developed by PPAs for PPAs, provide important guidance for developing, enhancing, and evaluating professional practice. 

NAPA develops and shares resources on its website to help PPAs navigate the development of their skills and careers. (www.practicinganthropology.org) NAPA continues to research and design resources and events for the PPA community – watch for new features in the coming year. 

NAPA’s Annals of Anthropological Practice focuses on highlighting the work of PPAs and lifting up the discipline in the world. Finally, NAPA’s long-standing mentor program provides bespoke, one-on-one support to PPAs as they develop their careers. 

All of NAPA’s work is developed and conducted by volunteers – many paying it forward, like me. We have all walked the road and know that going together is far better than alone. It doesn’t take a lot of time or energy to engage in any of these activities. Please join us and share your experience and help PPAs now and into the future. We as a community are welcoming and generous – it is finding that community that is often the challenge.

As I reflect on my journey and how I found my way home, I am grateful to NAPA and to all of those along the way for their mentoring, guidance, and community.  Robert Heinlein wrote a book titled “The Door into Summer” (1956/1957); the title came from the journey of the family cat from door to door in the winter trying to find one that would open into summer.  PPAs should not have to search for the door into community – it should be brightly colored and easy to find, and, the sign on the door should read, in large friendly letters: “Welcome Home!”  

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A Factual and Humorous Look at 2025:
A Reflection of Anthropology

Author: Suzette V. Chang, MA
Thick Descriptions Founder and CEO, NAPA President-Elect

The fourth quarter of every year ALWAYS positions me in a spirit and practice of reflection laced with humor.  Looking back at 2025, practicing anthropologists leaned into decolonization, applied impacts in the real world and we engaged with major contemporary issues like climate change, technology, career paths and social justice.  Each topic and effect speaks to the countless challenges humans faced and, we often rose-to-the-need with our ability to shift/pivot, while peeling back and executing the layers of our tenacity and resilience.   We embraced our theoretical foundations while becoming more outward-looking and committed to our practical approaches.  And, we are finally embracing our inner weirdness, realizing that the most “othered” culture is often an academic bubble; higher-education anthropologists are not exempt from this fact!  I love my academic anthropologists and “we’ve got some splainin’ to do (in my Ricky Ricardo voice) for the decisions of our past. Many of these decisions I will address in a future NAPA Notes article, so stay tuned.  And, if you don’t know who Ricky Ricardo is, ask your mom/dad/grandmother/grandfather/aunt/uncle/someone in their 40’s and older :).  Ok…focus Suzette 🙂 

Anthropologists are no longer only trekking to the ends of the earth because we can find differences and unique cultural practices in a suburban pickleball league or a Reddit sub-forum about artisanal mayonnaise or, decoding and understanding corporate Human Resources lingo :).  My point is regardless of what we studied this year, opportunities to move those studies into collaborative community engagement and action projects are endless and, as long as there are humans and we move around/act/perform/talk/sleep/eat and anything else we do as humans, these opportunities will exist; this is job security FO’ YA ( that translates as “for you”…that’s my black vernacular surfacing:).    I will temporarily pause my light-hearted humor and provide a reflective snapshot of anthropology for 2025!  

• Decolonization and Reflexivity: There is a significant emphasis on critical reflection within anthropology regarding our colonial legacies and power dynamics. This includes calls for anthropologists to be more reflective about our identities and power dynamics in research, ensuring we engage with and contribute to the communities we study.  This is evident in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) as a tool to improve black women’s reproductive health project.  Noted anthropologists within African American female maternal health  includes Ayodele Foster-McCray and her research/involvement regarding  mortality and birthing practices and, anthropologist Shan-Estelle Brown studying black health equity and decolonizing research, alongside physicians like Adeola Oni-Orisan working in community health while using medical anthropology and black feminists theories to address systemic racism and disparities in black maternal health.   
• Applied and Public Anthropology: A central theme is the importance of applied anthropology, where research is used to address real-world challenges.   An example includes anthropology in steAm (science, technology, engineering, Anthropology (side note –  STEAM/steam is stem + art [note the little “a”]; steAm is stem + Anthropology [note the capital “A”].  Art is a staple in steAm).  Thick Descriptions, founded by yours truly, uses steAm, supported with CBPR and, teaches youth and their families that culture shapes teaching, learning and schooling.  Thick Descriptions uses ethnographic methods to understand educational processes in diverse global contexts, aiming to improve culturally responsive practices and address issues like inequality, cultural pluralism, systemic dehumanization and how knowledge is transmitted formally and informally by looking beyond classrooms to see how education connects with society, identity and broader cultural values and human experiences.     
• Addressing Global Challenges: Anthropology is actively engaging with pressing global issues through specific sub-fields and conference themes.
  • Climate and Environment: Tracks like the “Anthropology of Climate and Environment” explore localized experiences and traditional ecological knowledge in fire management and sustainability policy.  The “Anthro- Minute” with Dr. Melissa Vogel, hosted by the American Anthropology Association’s YouTube, links anthropology to global warming, for example, and provides ways to reduce this environmental fact.
  • Technology and Society: Discussions also focus on the anthropological implications of digital transformation and the future of AI in research.  At a recent summit in Warsaw, Poland, community leaders from around the globe received tools on how to execute ethical and responsible AI.  This summit was hosted by IREX and facilitated by Tim Lockie of Human Stack, an organization committed to technology and grounded in practicing anthropology.  I attended this summit and used AI to transcribe a portion of my field notes and it actually worked!  Now I must find other responsibilities for my transcriber.  This is an example of how to use AI in an ethical and responsible way meaning when (not if) AI assumes the duties of a human being, identify, train and/or expand the skills of that human and secure other job responsibilities for them.  Every anthropologist (academic/practicing/professional/applied etc) completed at least one ethics class.  This is yet another opportunity to lean-into what we learned!
  • Career Paths: From Professor to Corporate Shaman:  I hear that the real money for anthropologists is in corporate consulting. Apparently, according to several of my colleagues,  we have not completely experienced our true practicing anthropological skills and knowledge until you’ve been paid $10,000 to explain to a tech startup CEO why their employees keep quitting (hint: it’s not the lack of kombucha on tap, it’s the lack of basic human respect and work-life balance). Who knew?!?!  Practicing anthropologists know!

Overall, 2025 gave us the opportunity to step back, look at ourselves and others during the past few decades and explore ‘how did we get here?’ – (sounds like participant-observations to me).  From executive orders, ICE, funding cuts, social unrest, unacceptable health offerings, injustice and so  much more, anthropologists are moving towards a more collaborative, ethical, and impactful discipline because we are paying attention to our contributions regarding human beings.   Know that we are growing, improving and making strides and 2025 gave us space to learn (side note – one way to learn is to be clear about what you don’t want/don’t want to repeat and 2025 did just that!)  Key events like the World Anthropological Union (WAU) 2025 Congress, the American Anthropology Association Conference in New Orleans  and the Indian Anthropology Congress 2025 reflect these themes, emphasizing the field’s role as a critical lens on the human condition.   With that said, I invite you to become involved with NAPA as we can help you by providing tools, knowledge, resources, professional development and more.  To learn more about NAPA, visit www.napa.org.  Thank you for the most precious and valuable component of you, meaning your time.  Be well and see you (face-to-face or virtually) next year!

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sNAPAshots: Reflections from Behind the Camera

Author: Reshama Damle, MA
sNAPAshots Founder & Creative Director, NAPA Organizational Relations Committee

The web series, sNAPAshots, was created to support new and pivoting anthropologists moving into industry. This has since become one of the funnest applications of my anthropological career. What began as a simple idea of sharing what I learned from informational interviews with practicing anthropologists—via coffee dates and side conversations—quickly turned into a living classroom on accessibility, perspective, and the practical skillsets of anthropology.

The first lesson was accessibility. Translating anthropological thinking into episodes that are engaging, digestible, and relevant forced me to question my assumptions about what people know and how to present their message. I learned to design each segment to meet people where they are: students who are trying to connect their interests outside of academia, mid-career professionals exploring a pivot, or researchers who work in both academia and consulting simultaneously. Making the content accessible wasn’t just a stylistic choice. I chose to ensure that knowledge is not gatekept behind academic language or insider norms. It was an ethical commitment.

Producing the series also deepened my practice of shifting between emic and etic perspectives. Interviewing guests required an emic stance, namely in the act of listening, letting them narrate their lived worlds, and resisting the urge to interpret too early. But crafting episodes, summaries, and takeaways demanded an etic view: stepping back, spotting patterns, and framing their anthropological value within a larger landscape of industry roles. Constantly moving between these positions refined a central skillset—not only to anthropology, but to human-centered work across industries.

Most importantly, the series highlighted the unique and practical talents anthropologists bring into the working world. We’re pattern connectors, meaning makers, and translators of human complexity. We see systems, behaviors, and cultural logics that others overlook. By featuring the stories of practicing and applied anthropologists, their struggles, and tactical advice, the series became a platform to show that an anthropological background truly is a competitive advantage.

As anthropologists, we have been trained to engage in design, research, collaboration, and innovation. It just so happens that so many industries desperately need these kinds of expertise. I was inspired to bring various skillsets together, and the creation of sNAPAshots showed me that this is exactly the way each of us can shape our careers outside of academia. For me, these strengths helped shape a desire I had to make lived experiences accessible to all, revealing varied perspectives and showing direct applications to real problem-solving. This kind of thinking can open so many doors—not only for individual careers, but for the field as a whole.

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Allied Organization Updates

Simple Ways You Can Support Career Readiness

Author: Elizabeth K. Briody, Ph.D.
Cultural Keys Founder and Principal, Anthropology Career Readiness Network Founder

Many of us often take our professional associations for granted. We recognize they are there and offer certain membership benefits, but if asked, we are hard pressed to name them. We also do not typically voice our appreciation to staff or board members when those associations engage in innovative and supportive activities. In this article, we want to draw your attention to the good that professional associations do—particularly when they partner to invest in the future. But first, some background. 

Most  ‘NAPA Notes’ readers are probably familiar with the Anthropology Career Readiness Network (ACRN). If not, we are a network of more than 950 practitioners, students, and instructors with the mission to improve the preparation of anthropology students for careers of their choice.

One of the services we offer is the Departmental Advisory Initiative (DAI). In this program, experienced DAI facilitators work intensively with anthropology departments/programs to develop and implement a career readiness implementation plan, customized for them and their local context. Instructors, students, university staff, and administrators meet with two ACRN facilitators during a two-to-three-day campus visit. They review the results of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, develop an in-depth understanding of their surrounding ecosystem, brainstorm career readiness goals and objectives, and identify strategies for integrating career readiness into their curriculum and departmental programming. Once the career readiness plan is finalized, ACRN meets with the DAI departments quarterly for 12 months while they are implementing their plan.

Participating DAI Departments	Current Status
2	Completed
8	In process
8	Ready to begin

Since DAI began in 2023, interest in it has continued to rise. Departments learn effective strategies for reconnecting with alumni, establishing relationships with Campus Career Services, building local community connections and pipelines (internship and job), and boosting anthropology enrollments. Instructors discover that their existing syllabi can be “tweaked” (not tossed) and that their courses are perceived as more useful, creative, and relevant. Undergraduate and graduate students appreciate discovering what they can do with a degree in anthropology, identifying their own anthropological skills, and learning to explain anthropology to people in their life—including to hiring managers. A recent testimonial underscores the change one professor noted: “Our undergraduate students are exhibiting greater confidence since we developed “roadmaps” for our majors, minors, and concentrations, initiated career preparedness skills, and insisted students plan for internships as underclassmen.” (Jennifer Trivedi, Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware)

ACRN has been fortunate to partner with both COPAA of SfAA and the AAA on DAI Awards. Cognizant of the risk of departmental mergers and closures, these associations understand that career readiness is a critical part of the solution to many of the problems facing higher education today. These associations have stepped up to support DAI by helping to defray travel costs for DAI campus visits (and there are no other costs that departments incur, since ACRN is a volunteerary group).

To be clear: it is not necessary to be a DAI Award recipient to participate in DAI. Facilitators can work with any department/program with an interest in career readiness. If department budgets are tight, ACRN is willing to do a public/university lecture while on campus, an offer which typically opens up funding options through the Dean’s office.

So, where do you come in? Because we are living in such volatile times and because all institutions (including your alma mater) are under threat, we would appreciate your help in these ways:

1. Give a “shout out” to SfAA and AAA on LinkedIn or BlueSky for supporting career readiness in such a tangible and impactful way. This task takes just a minute or two and will resonate across anthropology’s landscape.
2. If you are an instructor, have you considered bringing DAI to your campus?  Please contact us directly and we can answer your questions and address any concerns:  Elizabeth.Briody@gmail.com, RWNolan@purdue.edu, JenniferGStudebaker@gmail.com
3. Ask professors you know if they are familiar with DAI. Engage them in a conversation about career readiness. You can share this ACRN tool about DAI with them, or this website link, which also includes a downloadable application form. 

By working within and across networks, associations, organizations, and institutions, anthropology’s influence in higher education and the world can grow exponentially. Thanks for your help!  

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ACRN/NAPA Intern Reflections

Author: Chloe Aitken, Undergraduate Senior
ACRN Intern, NAPA Communications Committee Support

Working with NAPA and ACRN on the NAPA Career Resources project has been a genuine pleasure. As a UC Berkeley anthropology alum and current intern with ACRN, I’m grateful for opportunities to stay connected to the discipline and intentionally apply anthropological thinking post-graduation. As part of this project, I reviewed and organized career-focused anthropology resources by year, audience, and use case, and drafted concise descriptions explaining how each resource supports applied and professional pathways. For example, curating books like Using Anthropology in the World and EmTech Anthropology highlights emerging career trajectories and practical skill translation. Diving into these materials, evaluating their relevance, and assembling a curated set of resources for students and emerging practitioners is something I’m deeply passionate about. I’m thankful to contribute to a project that supports the next generation of anthropologists and strengthens pathways for those exploring how to bring anthropology into practice.

Author: Nimra Arooj
ACRN Intern, NAPA Communications Committee Support

I had the pleasure of working on the Resources document for NAPA. As an anthropology student, I am glad to have contributed to this cause and I hope this will help people in their careers. My best wishes to all!  

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Committee Updates

Organizational Relations Committee (ORC) Reflections

NAPA Careers Expo

Thank you to our Career Guides, Allied Organization Representatives, and volunteers for sharing your time, stories, and organizational experience at the 2025 NAPA Careers Expo with each other and the attendees! 

Especially in this time and space, your participation has been greatly appreciated. As always, this year’s attendees were excited, amazed, and encouraged about the myriad career opportunities available as a professional anthropologist.  The time spent with each attendee, or groups of attendees, is a rare gift. Nowhere else can the attendees find such varied and thoughtful conversations about the possibilities that are part of the landscape of their professional development.

We are always amazed at the incredible diversity of what we do as professionals and the complexities of our entangled cosmeres of work. Think back to your earliest university experiences and the path you took to arrive at anthropology for many of the attendees this was the first time they had an opportunity to ask those questions like, “What is it like…? How did you get started? What do you really do?” For folks who come to the Expo, this was a glimpse into the opportunities and challenges Professional, Practicing, and Applied anthropologists discover along their career plans!

Thank you again to everyone who was able to join us at the 2025 NAPA Careers Expo and our Career Guides, Allied Organization Representatives, volunteers’ dedication to our shared discipline!  We look forward to seeing you at the 2026 meetings in St. Louis, MO!

Stay safe and have peaceful holidays.

Joshua Liggett and Niel Tashima

Co-chairs, NAPA Organizational Relations Committee   

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Call for Volunteers

NAPA Communications – Social Media Mavens

Want to be at the center of the NAPA action? Want to know what we’re doing first and share that with the field? Become part of NAPA’s volunteer information communication hub and promote real world job opportunities and content across NAPA’s social media! Visit our contact portal and inquire today!

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General Call for Volunteers and Publications

Interested in joining our team, but not sure which committee is right for you? Checkout our general volunteer application and one of our coordinators will connect you with the ones that best align with your interests and skill sets!

If you’d like to publish something with NAPA either in NAPA Notes, AnthroNews, or on our website or social media, visit our submission page and let us know.

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