Issue Contents

• President’s Letter
• Editor’s Note
• NAPA Has Standards!
• SAPIENS Public Writing Training
• Global Business Anthropology Summit
• Call for Volunteers – Social Media Mavens
• General Call for Volunteers and Publications

President’s letter

Hello, NAPA Membership!

My name is Suanna Selby Crowley, and I am succeeding Rachel Hall-Clifford as President of NAPA for the next two years. I am excited to work with you on the needs of professional, practicing, and applied anthropologists in our AAA section and with those who are discovering NAPA’s many resources.

As an archaeologist, I am coming to NAPA with a slightly different background and set of experiences. I work primarily at the intersection of federal review and compliance within cultural resource management – now a billion dollar industry that employs the majority of archaeologists in the United States. My work has included both domestic and international projects and I’ve managed teams across time zones and in multiple languages. I earned the nickname “Dr. Dirt” for a specialty in geoarchaeology, spent time as a research and program funding advocate in the halls of Congress, and even broke the internet once for science. (That last one is a fun story!) Underlying these experiences is a passion for mentoring the next generation of professionals who are called to understand what makes us human, especially in this period of tremendous technological, social, and economic change.

As NAPA President, I aspire to several goals that I hope will strengthen and grow the reach of PPA anthropology. Among these, I will be working to revitalize our member communication and outreach about tools and events that support our organization. Many of you have found our sNAPAshots video series or attended our Careers Expo and I encourage your continued engagement with those resources. I will also be connecting with our NAPA committees to advance their work on organizational relations, member and student engagement, professional development, and ethics. Volunteers are always welcome and if you would like to participate, please reach out. Finally, I hope to act as a convener, building partnerships within AAA and
among a number of outside organizations where PPA anthropologists find community.

Before I close this letter, I want to thank outgoing President Rachel Hall-Clifford and Past President Cathleen Crain for their good counsel and support during my apprenticeship as President-Elect. Their leadership is a model for anthropologists everywhere. Suzette Chang, our new President-Elect, and I will be relying on their expertise in all things NAPA.

As we close out 2024 and on behalf of the NAPA Governing Council, I wish you a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year! I look forward to working with you as NAPA members in 2025.

Best wishes,
Suanna Selby Crowley
NAPA President

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Contributions

Editor’s Note

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

From the Comms Team and the newly minted NAPA Notes, we wish you a rejuvenating reprieve between holidays and echo our President’s wish for a health, happy, and prosperous New Year! We would also like to extend a specific thank you to our brand new editorial team: Isabela Pardo, Jacqueline Woodruff, Phillip Strickland, Samuel Victor, and Suzanne Hanchett!

We have developed a plan for the next year’s schedule of NAPA Notes content! We’re excited to bring new and recurring voices to our periodical and increase the number of issues to four. If you have a submission or a repackaging of a previous work you’d like to publish with us, please visit our submission page and let us know.

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NAPA Has Standards!

Author: Cathleen Crain, MA, Past NAPA President

Professional, practicing, and applied (PPA) anthropologists represent the rising majority of the discipline. Increasingly, anthropologists are looking beyond the academic world to the development of careers in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. his movement presents several critical challenges for the discipline of anthropology. The first is the quality preparation of new/young anthropologists for working effectively and successfully in the world. The second is supporting those PPA anthropologists who were not prepared but have struck out into the world; for all, ongoing professional development and support is essential. Still, there is a more fundamental issue to be addressed in this growing world of PPA anthropology, and that is of providing informed standards for professional work.

Frequently, PPA anthropologists are not engaged with national organizations such as the AAA and generally do not have a ready peer group. This often means that individuals are functioning alone in professional settings, using the skills gained in their academic training to address issues and contexts which they are not prepared to respond to. Clearly, this creates a variety of potential perils even as individuals encounter important opportunities for using the skills and tools of anthropology. Critically, they lack a clear set of professional standards to guide their work. 

The National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA), the professional and practicing arm of the AAA, has undertaken the development of professional standards. The standards are intended both to guide individuals and to encourage the engagement of PPA anthropologists in ongoing training as well as to stimulate professional discussions of professional work and practice.

NAPA’s Professional Development committee developed draft standards and presented them to PPA audiences for review. Over a period of more than 6 months, substantive feedback was gathered. The committee then designed a set of revisions to account for the community feedback. The standards have now taken shape as a living document available for dissemination and use. NAPA encourages the use of the standards for individuals and groups, as well as  in the classroom to help to guide the work of PPA anthropologists.

NAPA Has Standards! Webinar

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SAPIENS Public Writing Training: A Digital Booklet for Your Publishing Journey

Author: Chip Colwell, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, SAPIENS

https://www.sapiens.org/training/introduction
In this free training, SAPIENS offers you the chance to deepen your craft in writing for public readers. Over the course of eight hours, in this self-guided training you will recognize the power of sharing your research, learn the step-by-step process of writing for news outlets and popular magazines, absorb the key elements of storytelling, navigate ethical issues, gain insights into the habits of successful writers, and much more. Check out the training today—and be a part of the movement to make anthropology matter in the world.

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Global Business Anthropology Summit (GBAS)

Author: Maria Ivanova Yotova, GBAS 2025 Tokyo Organizing Committee

Join us for the fifth Global Business Anthropology Summit (GBAS), hosted by Chuo University and the Research Group for the Anthropology of Administration (RGAA), in Tokyo, Japan, from June 14-16, 2025. This year’s theme, ‘Myths and Realities in Business,’ invites participants to explore the transformative power of business anthropology. Discover how cultural insights and anthropological approaches are shaping the business landscape. Engage in thought-provoking discussions, connect with industry experts, and share innovative ideas that drive meaningful change. With a diverse range of participation formats—including salons and creative workshops—this summit promises to ignite inspiration and foster rich dialogues. Don’t miss this opportunity to uncover the hidden truths of business, to challenge conventional wisdom, and to learn how to integrate cultural insights into your strategies for success. Submit your proposals now and be part of this dynamic event connecting anthropology and business.

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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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