Meet our team
For 30 years, the Specify Project (and before that the MUSE Project) has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. In 2018 we transitioned to the Specify Collections Consortium (SCC), a self-sustaining community of over 105 institutional member museums. Our core staff is based at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum in Lawrence, KS. Alongside our full-time team, a group of undergraduate students supports software testing, engineering, and user support to further the SCC mission.
Core Team
Aimee Stewart
SCC Director
Aimee combines a background in geography and GIS architecture with over 20 years in specimen and species informatics. She worked on the LifeMapper project, led development of the Specify Network, and helped launch the Biotaphy project. As SCC Director, she advances the consortium's mission and fosters collaboration among research collections worldwide.
Theresa Miller
SCC Membership & Fulfillment Officer
Theresa is the Membership and Fulfillment Officer at the Specify Collections Consortium. She has Master of Arts degrees in Archaeology and Public Affairs. She has worked for Specify for over 15 years, supporting hundreds of collections and collection personnel to bring their collections data into Specify from varying systems.
Grant Fitzsimmons
SCC Assistant Director
Grant Fitzsimmons is Assistant Director at the Specify Collections Consortium. He leads large-scale data migrations, delivers hands-on training and technical support, and partners with collections to translate curation and field workflows into practical Specify features, documentation, and reproducible workflows.
Caroline Denis
Software Technical Lead
Caroline is Specify’s full-stack lead developer, overseeing the development process and engineering team at the SCC since 2022. She brings experience in software engineering, project management, and team leadership. Originally from Europe, Caroline has lived on four continents and enjoys bringing an international perspective to her work. Outside of coding, she’s a big foodie and is currently trying to work her way through every dim sum spot in New York’s Chinatown.
Jason Melton
Research Engineer
Jason is a software engineer who began as a student developer in 2022. He loves Dungeons & Dragons, reading, and spending time in nature. He also volunteers and mentors the next generation of Specify students.
Bronwyn Combs
Support Specialist
Bronwyn has supported Specify users for over three years, combining her passion for helping others and knack for problem solving. Dedicated to promoting biodiversity and environmental stewardship, she holds an interdisciplinary Bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Global Studies. Proud cat mom, crafter, and prairie lover, she volunteers at a local environmental nonprofit, local creative reuse nonprofit, and with USGS as a map editor.
Andy Bentley
Specify Usability Lead
Andy has been the Specify usability expert for years, collaborating with GBIF and partners on extended specimen and digital specimen projects. An advocate for data interoperability, he manages the KU Biodiversity Institute Ichthyology collection and SCC usability initiatives. He has served the SCC for over a decade.
Ashley Cowell
Finance Specialist
Ashley holds a Master of Accounting and has been the SCC finance specialist since 2022, assisting with accounting, financials, projections, and more. She volunteers in her community, travels whenever she can, and helps keep SCC operations running smoothly.
Jim Beach
SCC Director Emeritus
Jim founded the SCC and the JRS Biodiversity Foundation, building partnerships that promote collections-based science. He advocates for biodiversity collections, leads research data communications, and supports data standards and open access. His work spans funding, outreach, and community building for natural history collections worldwide.
Student Staff
Undergraduate students at the University of Kansas support the SCC mission through software testing, engineering, and user support.
