As Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Scott Cutler's responsibilities cover a wide range. His curatorial duties include collections care and developing policies related to the acquisition and care of those collections. He also functions as the coordinator of the Museum's activities related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Other responsibilities include the temporary exhibits program, coordination of the set-up and take-down of exhibits, and enhancement of the Museum's permanent exhibits. He occasionally teaches courses for the Biology Department and is the prime preparator of research and teaching bird study skins for the Museum's Laboratory for Environmental Biology.
Scott received his Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University in 1975. In 1983, he obtained his Master's degree in biology, with an emphasis in ornithology, from San Francisco State University. His thesis examined the morphological differences among the heads of Californian cormorant species as related to their feeding ecologies. A secondary teaching certificate was acquired from Portland State University in 1985.
From 1977 until 1981, Scott was preparator and curatorial assistant for the Vertebrate Museum at San Francisco State University. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the collection manager for the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program's collections at the California Academy of Sciences. In 1990, he became the natural sciences collection manager for the Museum of Northern Arizona. He joined the Centennial Museum in the summer of 1993.
Professional affiliations include the Cooper Ornithological Society, the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, and the Association of Systematics Collections.
Scott sees museums as important store houses of knowledge and inspiration that will allow future generations to better understand not only their own history, but their place in
nature. They can provide valuable information in their own right or provide reliable data to use in conjunction with outside studies. Exhibits serve to communicate the knowledge acquired not only
from research on the collections but other studies that will serve to educate and enlighten the general public.
