America Works

Dr. Maija Holsti, a Pediatric Emergency Physician and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics in Salt Lake City talks with folklorist Lisa Gabbert she talks about what led her into working with children and the challenges and joys of her profession for the Occupational Folklife Project “Doctoring: The Occupational Folklore of Physicians.”

Kate Lott is a large animal veterinarian who specializes in dairy cattle and works for the Tillamook County Creamery Association. She talks about her enthusiasm for cows, her training and about taking care of them during this interview with folklorist Jared Schmidt as part of his Occupational Folklife Project “Tillamook: Cheesemakers in Coastal Oregon.”

Peg Rauschenberger, a psychiatric nurse and faculty member at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, talks with folklorist Charitie Hyman about the rewards and challenges of her job as mental health worker for Hyman’s Occupational Folklife Project documenting 20 psychiatric nurses throughout the Bager State.

Robert O’Keffe, a nurse and former Marine, talks about how his experiences and dedication led to his current career in a Veterans Health Administration hospital. He was interviewed in Wilmington, Delaware, during the Covid epidemic by oral historian Alana Glaser for her Occupational Folklife Project on “Nursing America’s Veterans.”

Carrington Doolittle Pertalion, a Certified Nurse Midwife from Boone, North Carolina, tells folklorist Josephine McRobbie how she transitioned from working as in commercial fishing to midwifery and the challenges and rewards of her careers during an interview for McRobbie’s Occupational Folklife Project on “Midwives, Doulas and Birth Workers in North Carolina.”

Dr. Mark Harris, a clinical anesthesiologist in Salt Lake City, Utah, talks with folklorist Lisa Gabbert about his job and how he and his colleagues use humor as a coping mechanism to ease stress and anxieties in interactions with his patients as part of her Occupational Folklife Project on “Doctoring: The Occupational Folklore of Physicians.”

Diane Imrie, a registered dietician and hospital nutritionist who works as Director of Nutrition at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont, talks about why she loves her job and with folklorist Andy Kolovos for Vermont Folklife Center’s excellent Occupational Folklife Project on “Grass-Roots Agriculture in Vermont.”

Nurse practitioner Dr. Tracie Lavette Augusta of Memphis, Tennessee, talks with Archie Green Fellow Carmen Vaughn-Hewitt about her experiences as a nurse practitioner running her own practice, other nursing jobs she has worked throughout her career, the health of Black America, and her passion for holistic health as part of the Occupational Folklife Project “African American Nurses: The Chi Eta Phi Sorority.”

Patrick Palmer, the owner-operator of Thornapple Farm and Draft Trash in New Haven, Vermont, talks about his horse-based trash collecting business with documentarian Virgina Nickerson for the Occupational Folklife Project’s “Trash Talk: Workers in Vermont’s Waste Management Industry.”

Bill Favaro, who, with his brother Sam is the owner and proprietor of Favaro’s Rod & Reel Repair Shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, talks with folklorist Douglas Manger about how his business developed during the 1940s when Mr. Favaros’ father–(Hypolite Favaro, Sr.) –sold fishing rods and other fishing related items at his Esso gas station. He was interviewed for the Occupational Folklife Project Baton Rouge Small Businesses and Trades.