Kate Flinner has served in a wide range of capacities at Slover Linett, including project manager, field researcher, and analyst. Her main focus has been on qualitative methods and museum projects, and she has been a lead field researcher for clients such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Chicago’s Hyde Park Arts Center. Kate also supervises the firm’s roster of freelance field researchers, collaborates on data analysis, and assists in report preparation.
In addition to her work at Slover Linett, Kate works as an evaluation assistant in the Visitor Studies Department at the John G. Shedd Aquarium. She also works as an independent researcher for the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center.
In 2008, Kate came to Slover Linett to manage Slover Linett’s innovation initiative in the museum field, LabMuseum. She helped plan and host a national convening of museum professionals and scholars in Chicago in November, 2008 and coordinated the establishment of the independent nonprofit organization that will serve as an umbrella for LabMuseum and other potential R&D incubators in the cultural sector.
Kate also works as an editorial assistant for the book review section of Curator: The Museum Journal, a peer-refereed journal of scholarship and practice founded in 1958 at the American Museum of Natural History. Her own review of Museum Careers: A Practical Guide for Students and Novices by N. Elizabeth Schlatter appeared in the journal.
In 2008 Kate was an intern at the Spertus Museum at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, where, as part of her graduate thesis on learning in culturally-specific museums, she interviewed museum visitors and staff to evaluate display techniques and pedagogical approaches. Kate also gained experience planning and installing special exhibitions and curated a temporary exhibit in the museum’s main gallery.
Kate earned her MA from the University of Chicago’s Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences with a concentration in museums and anthropology. She holds a BA in history from Kenyon College, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. At Kenyon she also received the Alan G. Goldsmith Memorial Prize for History.
