This Wikipedia user has passed away. Condolences may be added below.
It is with great sadness to report that Effie Kapsalis passed away on December 11, 2022.
UPDATE: There will be a celebration of the life of Effie Kapsalis on January 8, 2023, at 10 a.m. at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C.See tweet for more details.
Effie Kapsalis was senior digital program officer at the Smithsonian Institution, in the Office of Digital Transformation. She was an inspiration and a force in the GLAM Wiki community, constantly pushing for cultural and heritage institutions to embrace Wikimedia collaboration, open content policies, and the goal of knowledge equity. As a longtime staff member of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, she pressed for more content to be released under a CC0 license for upload to Wikimedia Commons, and supported Wikimedia DC and the greater wiki community in the hiring of Wikimedians in Residence. In 2020, this culminated in the Smithsonian adopting an Open Access initiative that released more than 3 million works under a CC0 license, with that number still growing. She fostered the creation of the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, inspired by the gender gap work within the Wikimedia community, and infused Wikipedia and Wikidata into the work of Smithsonian's Strategy 2022 (and now 2027) plans. As a result, today there is a deep and active set of Smithsonian Institution staff working with Wikidata and other Wikimedia initiatives, all thanks to Effie's restless and passionate push for them from Smithsonian's new Office of Digital Transformation, which she helped establish. But more important than all this, she was wonderful to work with as a colleague and a person. Her legacy will live on and will not be forgotten.
The family has set up a site in her memory.
Reflections and messages of remembrance are welcome below.
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Effie at the Open Access launch event, February 25, 2020 -
Effie was the force behind the Smithsonian Open Access initiative, the result of many years of work -
Effie talking about Wikipedia and Smithsonian work at the Museum Computer Network conference, 2019 -
Effie and Sara Snyder receive the 2013 Distinguished Service Award from Wikimedia DC -
Effie interviews Ellen Stofan, director of the National Air and Space Museum, October 8, 2019, Ada Lovelace Day Wikipedia Edit-a-thon -
Effie speaks at the 2017 European GLAMwiki Coordinators meeting, UNESCO Paris, February 17, 2017 -
Smithsonian #BecauseOfHerStory National Portrait Gallery edit-a-thon, 2019 -
Effie with Smithsonian administration and Katherine Maher of the Wikimedia Foundation, 2017 -
Effie with Dr. Meghan Ferriter and Smithsonian Institution Archives -
Talking about AWHI at the Pratt Institute, 2019
