The South Peace Regional Archives is pleased to introduce the newest member of our team. Stephanie Friesen has recently moved from Vancouver, BC to work as the new SPRA Archivist. Please join us in welcoming her to Grande Prairie and the Archives!
Hello everyone, my name is Stephanie Friesen and I originally hail from a small town in Manitoba. I recently graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Masters in Archival Studies. Before starting my master’s degree in BC, I completed an undergraduate degree in Archaeology at the University of Saskatchewan. During my time completing that degree, I was fascinated to learn how archival sources contributed immensely to a particular archaeological study. I also wanted to be able to facilitate research and widen people’s knowledge into the past (without personally digging in the dirt). This led me to becoming an Archivist!
My most recent position before coming to the South Peace region was as the Archivist and Records Manager at an independent school in Metro Vancouver. Another previous position I held was as a Collections Assistant at the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. In that position I was involved in a digitization pilot program where I digitized records held at a partner institution in order to make them more accessible to Survivors and other researcher through the RSHDC’s website. Before that, I was a records management co-op student with a large department at UBC where I was involved in a server migration project. I also spent a summer working for the Rossland Museum & Discover Centre as their Assistant Archivist.
I’m so excited to be the new Archivist at the South Peace Regional Archives and to begin learning all about this community. I look forward to meeting with many of you in the future.