Amy L. Covell-Murthy
Amy L. Covell-Murthy is the Archaeology Collection Manager and Head of the Section of Anthropology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has over 15 years of experience as a museum professional and over a decade of experience with repatriation and NAGPRA consultation. Amy’s research focuses on the care of human remains in collecting institutions, especially the formation of pertinent policy and procedure. With this work, she hopes to ensure that people have agency over their own bodies and believes that prioritizing relationships over objects is the only way to dismantle oppressive and colonial frameworks inherent in museum work.
After receiving her B.A. from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Covell-Murthy spent time as a shovel bum in the Eastern Woodlands. After transitioning to the museum world in 2007, Covell-Murthy gained over a decade of experience and several repatriation and decolonization certifications through Museum Study LLC and the National Preservation Institute before completing her master’s degree at Harvard University Extension School in 2021.