Stearns History Museum Appoints Amy Degerstrom as Permanent Executive Director, Building on a Legacy of Excellence and Accessible Historical Preservation

(KNSI) – A familiar face will guide the future of the Stearns History Museum.

Interim executive director Amy Degerstrom has been appointed to the role after being with the museum for five years and the last three months filling in. The board made it permanent this week, and she discussed what it was like to get the phone call. “I was very excited about it. It’s a great opportunity, and I had some really stiff competition from the other candidates. So it’s really great that they felt that faith in me. Very humbling in the end.”

Stearns History Museum Executive Director Amy Degerstrom explaining the history behind a buffalo rifle found behind the Cold Spring Brewery.
Jake Judd/KNSI News

She received her master’s in art history from The Ohio State University. Degerstrom has been a tour guide at Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, worked as an educator and site guide at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul and the Ramsey House. She says her time at the Cincinnati History Museum, as director of the Becker County Museum in Detroit Lakes, and most recently as the community development director for the Stearns History Museum has prepared her for this challenge.

Degerstrom explained she is really a history teacher at heart, and the job of a museum is very multifaceted. “It’s not just collecting old stuff and putting it in an archive. In fact, the actual job is preservation, yes, but also making that accessible to people.”

She’s now in charge of a facility that stores nearly 30,000 of the area’s historic objects and around a million documents and photos.

The institution is the only county museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and one of only 250 in the nation with the distinction. She thanked the museum’s stellar staff, fantastic volunteers, and supportive county commissioners for its successes.

Degerstrom took over the position in August after former director Carrie Essig left to join Stride Academy.

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