Recruiting and Managing Volunteers in Museums and Other Nonprofit Organizations

Kristy Van Hoven, recently completed her PHD research at the University of Leicester where she focused on understanding the support museums can offer towards community healing and wellbeing. Though her research she identified unique ways for visitors, volunteers and other stakeholders to engage with museum collections and spaces to foster emotional, mental, and physical wellness through carefully crafted museo-medial partnerships. Through her professional role as Director at The National EMS Museum, Kristy puts her research and innovative frameworks into practice supporting first responders through museum programing and community support initiatives. Kristy has held a leadership position in many volunteer organizations that work to engage communities in cultural activities including dance, music, storytelling, and First-aid. Since her first role as a historic site interpreter in 1997, Kristy has passionately pursued her career to foster a love for museums, their spaces and their collections within communities far and wide for over 25 years. Loni Wellman is the Good Neighbor program Director at Goodwill of the Finger Lakes. There she works with organizations, schools, and social workers to get donated items into the hands of people who need them. She is responsible for cultivating and retaining all Goodwill volunteers, including volunteers for 211/LIFE LINE, Working Wardrobe, Good Neighbor, and Goodwill Vision Enterprises. Loni has served as Board Chair of the Rochester Area Administrators of Volunteer Services (RAAVS) since June of 2020. Taking leadership at the start of the pandemic, Wellman had the goal of maintaining membership numbers during a dangerous time for volunteer coordinators. Additionally, Wellman sought out relevant speakers and workshops to assist volunteer coordinators as their jobs became extremely dynamic. Prior to moving to the Rochester area in 2018, Loni was the Volunteer and Events Manager at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum in St. Augustine, FL. There, she also served on the board of the Junior Service League of St. Augustine. Loni spent 16 years in the non-profit realm. She spent 12 of those years in the museum field managing volunteers in historic houses, Children’s and Science Museums, and active archeological digs/dives. Loni has her Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University.