Specify Collections Consortium Team

Meet our team

For 30 years, the Specify Project, along with its predecessor the MUSE Project, has operated with the support of the U.S. National Science Foundation, which played a crucial role in the development of collection informatics initiatives. In 2018, we transitioned to the Specify Collections Consortium (SCC), evolving into a self-sustaining international community of over 105 institutional stakeholder museums. Our team is primarily based in Lawrence, KS, at the University of Kansas, located in the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.

Our highly experienced and dedicated team is committed to enhancing collaborative governance, improving technical methods, and fostering community engagement to better serve the needs of biodiversity collections worldwide. Alongside our full-time staff, we have a group of exceptional undergraduate students who actively support the mission of the SCC.
Aimee Stewart
SCC Director
aimee.stewart@specifysoftware.org
Aimee has over 20 years of profound technical understanding and experience with specimen and species informatics. As the director of the SCC, she is dedicated to advancing the consortium's mission and fostering meaningful collaboration among research collections worldwide.
Theresa Miller
Membership & Fulfillment Officer
membership@specifysoftware.org
Theresa manages the membership operation, including onboarding new members, preparing quotes for services and data conversions, and coordinating workshops, events, and outreach. She has been working with the Specify team for over 15 years.
Grant Fitzsimmons
Research Informatics Developer
support@specifysoftware.org
Grant supports consortium members through webinars, training materials, documentation, and workshops. He provides technical assistance to the hundreds of collections in the SCC and serves as a liaison between the community and the development team. He has worked with Specify since 2021.
Caroline Denis
Research Engineer
Caroline is Specify's full-stack lead developer. She is an avid traveler and former educator, responsible for overseeing and managing the development processes and team at the SCC.
Andy Bentley
Specify Usability Lead
andybentley@ku.edu
Andy is the collection manager of the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute Ichthyology collection together with being their Bioinformatics manager in charge of databases and data publishing. He has been a usability lead for the SCC for over a decade.
Alec White
Research Engineer
Alec is a back-end developer transforming coffee into code, making sure Specify Cloud operates seamlessly.
Jason Melton
Research Engineer
Jason is a software engineer with a passion for building and breaking stuff. He started as a student developer at Specify and has been an important part of the team since 2022.
Bronwyn
Specify Support Assistant
Bronwyn has a background in environmental studies and has supported Specify users since 2023. She is a key member of the user support team and has extensive experience in the software.
Jim Beach
Head of Informatics
Emeritus Director
beach@specifysoftware.org
Jim is an advocate for biodiversity collections, focusing on research data processing and communications to enhance the value of their archives. With expertise in biological museum collections, grant writing, and non-profit development, he founded the Specify Collections Consortium and the JRS Biodiversity Foundation.

Student Staff

Undergraduate students at the University of Kansas support the SCC mission and contribute significantly to our software testing, engineering, and user support processes. We are incredibly fortunate to have their support.
Alejandro Sandoval
Student Developer
Anya Combs
Student Developer
Elizabeth Enslin
Specify Software Tester
Lexi Clevenger
Specify Software Specialist
Kaden Huber
Student Developer
Marco Aurelio Martinez Reyes
Student Developer
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