Elyse Adams is the full-time Program Coordinator for the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) and an adjunct faculty of Bio-archaeology at the University of Mary Washington.
Elyse’s academic background starts with a bachelor’s degree in historic preservation at the University of Mary Washington and a master’s degree in bio-archaeology from George Mason University. Prior to joining the IIR, she worked in historic architecture and museums as well as conducted field schools at the Stafford Civil War Pite in Stafford County, Virginia. She also conducted academic research, excavations, and led summer camps at Ferry Farm, George Washington’s childhood home and was a lab manager at a cultural resource management firm. While pursuing her master’s degree, she conducted research in Peru for her master's thesis.
Elyse joined IIR’s team in 2023 first as a Graduate Research Assistant and then the Project Coordinator. She reflected on her family’s history of migration, which she traces back to their arrival at Ellis Island at the end of the 20th century. She has always been interested in forensic archaeology and ethical repatriation, which is returning the remains of someone who passed away elsewhere to where they were born so that families can perform proper burials. When the opportunity arose to work full-time at the IIR, she was interested in “getting stories out there, disseminating information about people who lived in different places. What were their motivations, and what did it take for them to get here?”
Elyse’s typical workday is unpredictable, but her strength in organizing is key to IIR’s success. Behind-the-scenes, she ensures that everybody is compliant with the university’s human resource policies, organizes events, andmanages communication with stakeholders. Her role involves “putting pieces together. It’s a lot of details, but it forms the big picture in the end.” Elyse relies on skills she developed while working in cultural resource management where she developed expertise in planning and foresight. She explained, “Archaeology is so multi-faceted. It starts with a plan, budget, paperwork, agreements, and requires cooperation of all entities involved. Then the actual excavation is so unpredictable; you don’t know what you're going to find. You have to plan what to do with all that information, and plan for the proper curation of any artifacts when you get them out of the ground.”
Being passionate is also important, Elyse emphasized. She described her work as “fulfilling because it all comes to fruition. I get to see the outcome: events, board meetings, presentation slides.” Because of the multiple demands of her role, she is required to stay on top of things. She explains, “I care so much about it. I don't let it fall through the cracks. If you don't care about the Institute, you may not be in tune with what is needed.”
One thing that not many people know about Elyse’s role is, “how much is going on at one time. Never-ending. I'm a part of every wheel. Constantly juggling.” Elyse shared that even though burnout is inevitable, she has started acknowledging the importance of needing space, delegating tasks, giving herself grace, and crossing out checklists!
For Elyse, events and its after-effects are her favorite part of the IIR. She shared, “People write about how [at an event] they could speak their voice in safe spaces and how much they enjoyed the content. Real people benefitin real time. I love seeing that impact, how much we’ve helped people.”
An event that Elyse especially enjoyed was A Conversation with the Villalobos Brothers, a Mexican trio hosted by George Mason’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts. She shared, “I got to talk to immigrant musicians and learn how entertainers struggle to become figures in an academic, political world. You don’t just walk in with a guitar, there's much more behind immigrant artists. This is what I'm in for.”
A current initiative Elyse is particularly excited about is IIR’s collaboration with Mason Exhibitions to create an exhibit on arts and migration, tentatively planned for Fall 2027. She explained that it will "integrate immigration stories; it's going to be big and impactful.”
When asked if there is one thing she wished more people understood about global migration and displacement, Elyse answered, “We're all migrating at all times. It is natural for humans to move around. Even in the United States, it is important to be supportive of people migrating and immigrating. It is crucial for the cultural fabric of a nation that we incorporate everybody here—those who choose to be here and those who were born here. You don't know who has impacted your community.”
Elyse values that her work is impactful, “a lot of small tasks end up with a much larger picture, making people heard and seen." It is fulfilling because “I don't go to work and feel like I wasted my day, I helped other people.”Her hope for the future is “that we can move past our political history, and that migration and immigration can be seen as a positive again.”