Melissa Bechhoefer is the director of integrative collections. She is leads a team of 14 professional staff that manage the Museum’s 4.3 million research, education, and archival collections. She is passionate about best-practices in the physical care of collections, and providing researchers, students, source communities, and the public both physical and digital access to collections and their associated data. She is currently focused on completing installation and collections moves to the state-of-the-art Avenir Collections Center, opened in 2014, updating collections policies and procedures, and implementing a collections digitization plan. Melissa has worked in museum collections management and registration for nearly 20 years; she has managed many types of collections throughout her career, including with the National Park Service and the State of Colorado before joining the Museum team in 2012. Melissa is very active in museum professional organizations and was elected to the board of the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists in 2019.