Hope Gillespie

There’s a movie poster of Harrison Ford’s iconic character Indiana Jones fixed to Hope Gillespie’s office wall at Carnegie Science Center. It is there for professional inspiration as much as workplace decor. “I cannot overstate the influence Indiana Jones has had on my life,” says Gillespie, who is the museum experiences officer at the Science Center. The film franchise piqued her interest in archaeology—she holds a bachelor’s degree in archaeology from The George Washington University and a master’s degree in the discipline from University College London. But she also just loves the character’s catchphrase about artifacts—“It belongs in a museum”—that informs her work to this day. Since joining the Science Center in 2021, Gillespie has put her archaeology background to use by spending months researching upcoming exhibitions. Her work ranges from studying delicate waterlogged objects in TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition, the blockbuster exhibition that closed in April, to researching the process of animation for The Science Behind Pixar, which opened May 25. Gillespie trains staff and produces supplementary materials to enhance exhibitions. She also spends a lot of time answering visitors’ questions, which is the part of her job she loves most. “I love teaching,” Gillespie says. “I didn’t think that informal education was my superpower until I started to do it.”