About the Oral Historian

Beth Morgan brings to oral history 30 years of experience as an interviewer.  She began her career as a reporter with a degree in journalism from the University of New Mexico in 1976.  She studied under Tony Hillerman (journalism) and Rudolfo Anaya (creative writing). Eventually, she worked as a reporter, editor, and feature writer at six New Mexico newspapers, including The New Mexican, a Gannett newspaper in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In addition to some free-lance writing, Beth worked in public relations for the Orchestra of Santa Fe and the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at New Mexico State University. In 1992, she obtained a master’s degree in English from NMSU with a specialty in folklore and oral history, graduating with a 4.0 grade point average. 

Since then, she has worked as oral historian and editor for three cultural resource management companies. Her projects included:

  • Project coordinator and oral historian, White Sands Missile Range Ranching Oral History project, oral history of ranchers displaced by the range’s creation
  • Melrose Air Force Range, oral history of ranchers displaced by the range’s creation
  • Proto-Historic Project, oral history of ranchers familiar with historic Apache sites on Fort Bliss, New Mexico, and Texas
  • Archival research on William Beaumont Hospital, El Paso, Texas
  • Taught oral history to Navajo students, Pine Hill School, Ramah, New Mexico
  • Taught oral history to Las Cruces at-risk youth, NMSU ¡Aqui Se Puede! Program
  • Interviewer, University of Texas at El Paso Bracero Oral History Project

Upon founding Full Circle Oral History in 2000, renamed Full Circle Heritage Services in 2006, projects have included:

  • Archival research for Ecological Communications, a cultural resources company conducting work on White Sands Missile Range
  • Assisting the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in selecting excerpts from 450 hours of oral interviews for placement on the web and on mobile listening stations,
  • Compiling, editing, designing and publishing Goldenrod Girl: A Kansas Prairie Child and Montana Homesteader’s Wife, a family history book on a local woman’s pioneer grandmother

Works in progress based on oral histories:           

  • You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me: A Vietnam Memoir
  • Nell of Nogal Mesa
  • Family oral histories

Volunteer work:           

  • Independent biographical interview of hospice patient
  • PR materials for local non-profit
  • Judge, National History Day, two years
  • Edited self-help booklet
  • Conceived and chaired committee for Buy Local Small Business Fair, Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 26, 2011

Professional organizations:

  • Member, Oral History Association, since 1994
  • Member, Association of Personal Historians

Additional education and training:

  • Post-graduate courses: Technology Grant Writing, NMSU, 1996; Grant Writing, NMSU, 2004
  • Workshop, Tribal Consultation, SWCA, Seattle, 2009