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.
Effie was an amazing advocate for more than a decade, pushing the boundaries and leading traditional GLAM institutions toward more wiki work. People may not realize how groundbreaking her 2016 work was to convince museums that releasing their content under open licenses would not make them poor. That 2016 presentation at SXSW was called Give It Away to Get Rich: Open Cultural Heritage. The associated paper The Impact of Open Access on Galleries, Libraries, Museums, & Archives became a must read and paved the way for folks such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and many more to lead the way to more CC0 licensing. I am so honored to have worked with her both casually and professionally over the years, and am proud to call her a friend. She will not be forgotten because the work she inspired continues, and will be carried on. - Fuzheado | Talk13:50, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
I believe I met Effie at a Wikimania conference (was it in Montreal, 2017?). We were having lunch at the same table, and started chatting. I was immediately in awe of her intelligence, drive, and kindness. As Fuzheado says above: her advocacy work to promote open access in the cultural sector, and her achievements in that area within the Smithsonian, have been incredibly influential. She was a role model, a powerhouse. Even though we were only acquaintances, we stayed in touch via social media and I have always thought about her with immense warmth and fondness. I am absolutely devastated to hear that she has passed away. I wish her family and friends lots of strength; please do know that Effie was deeply appreciated by so many people around the world. She will continue to inspire me in my work, here on Wikimedia projects, in the GLAM sector... Spinster (talk) 14:24, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Effie was someone I always looked for in online GLAM spaces, because she was such a friendly, smart, positive and energetic presence. We never met in person, but we first "met" on Flickr Commons; she interviewed me as a Commons user for the Smithsonian blog in 2009, and quoted me sometimes in her presentations. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and her encouragement is probably one of the reasons I landed at Wikipedia. This news is so terribly sad; love to her family and loved ones in these hard days. Penny Richards (talk) 16:42, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
I’ve known Effie for years, at the intersection of her work at the Smithsonian and my work with Women in Red. Intelligent, kind, inspirational, she was a born leader in all the best ways. She made me feel like a part of her inner circle – a real gift with how she treated people. RIP, Effie. You will be dearly missed but not forgotten. My sincere condolences to Effie's family and friends. --Rosiestep (talk) 17:10, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
I was very grateful to work with and get to know Effie through her proposal for the Smithsonian's American Women's History Initiative in 2019, and she was a excellent role model for earnest leadership in the Wikimedia movement. Effie and her team demonstrated the value of rigorous institutional engagement with the Wikimedia movement. The outcomes from this project were tremendous in terms of addressing gender gap challenges and providing models for how institutions can contribute through Open Access initiatives, and were [presented at Wikimania 2019]. Among other results, the project showed that a single image can have a profound impact on readers, as well as institutional culture and priorities. Effie was also a thoughtful partner and advocate in advancing equity around community access to resources. She recognized specific causes of inequity that affect smaller communities and organizations, and was earnest in pushing for support specifically directed at these needs through mentorship and and connections with partners. I am grateful for her contributions to these movement-wide conversations and more directly to my team. I will miss her sincere advocacy and leadership in GLAM, and appreciate that her work has been important source of inspiration for me and many other Wikimedians. I wish I had gotten to know Effie more personally, and am glad her friendship has been so important and cherished by many Wikimedians. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:14, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
I was lucky enough to meet Effie when co-presenting at another Smithsonian related panel at SXSW 2016. She was kind, inclusive, supportive, funny and wonderfully intelligent. When, after the conference, I was invited to visit Washington D.C. and the Smithsonian, Effie invited me and my husband to her home for a delicious dinner. I met her lovely family, and was treated to Effie's renowned cooking. We had a wonderful night, the memories of which I treasure. In the following years Effie was always interested in and supportive of my work, particularly where it intersected with Smithsonian collections and her beloved passion for better representation for women. I'll always be grateful that I had the opportunity to meet her, to learn from her and to play a very small part in helping her #BecauseOfHerStory project. I feel very privileged she was in my life. - Ambrosia10 (talk) 17:49, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Thanks so much for sharing that story, as I had no idea about the dinner. She always spoke glowingly about you when it came to anything BHL or natural history. - Fuzheado | Talk18:06, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
She was just wonderful, as I know you'll be aware. We hung out all through those days at SXSW laughing and enjoying ourselves. I can remember how nervous she was about her presentation but unsurprisingly she knocked it out of the park. And then when I went on to Washington she couldn't have been more supportive. We've kept in touch since then as I'd drop "leads" into her or the #BecauseOfHerStory twitter feed whenever I stumbled across particularly notable women in the Smithsonian Natural History collections. And of course I followed and watched all her presentations and writings. Her passing is such a huge loss to the Smithsonian, OpenAccess and Wiki communities. I know I will miss her and her contributions. - Ambrosia10 (talk) 18:41, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Amazingly, look what I found as I was gathering more photos of Effie to upload to Commons. This was at a presentation in 2019 at Pratt Institute in NYC. Effie Kapsalis highlights the work of User:Ambrosia10 and the Smithsonian Transcription Center.Fuzheado | Talk16:48, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Wow! That's just so cool! There's a history behind those tweets - I was transcribing a catalogue by Joseph Nelson Rose in the Smithsonian Transcription Center with other volunteers. We kept noticing all the women who were sending specimens to Rose in his catalogue. And of course me being me, I just started researching them and then telling the Smithsonian Transcription Center (Meghan Ferriter) and also the Archives staff (including Ricc Ferrante and I'm assuming Effie) about these women. This was all prior to me knowing about Wikidata (it was 2015) so my aim was to attempt to get enough information on these women to get them into Wikipedia (easier said than done as a result of the notability criteria). This research work led to a list that I gave to the Archives, which in turn the Smithsonian used to helped informed editathons like this editathon. That particular Smithsonian Transcription Project turned out to be the incubator for much of my subsequent work highlighting women and under represented folk in natural history. - Ambrosia10 (talk) 17:46, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
So sorry to hear of Effie's passing. I met Effie at the Smithsonian BecauseOfHerStory event in April of 2019. Fuzheado took this great photo. She is at the top (12 o'clock). WomenArtistUpdates (talk) 18:13, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Thanks so much for reminding us of that image, and how perfect it is that she is right at the top. This was one of her favorite photos that she loved showing as an example of our edit-a-thons. - Fuzheado | Talk18:24, 14 December 2022 (UTC)ReplySmithsonian BecauseOfHerStory
It's rare that you meet a person only a few times but remember almost all of the details and conversations you had with her in vivid detail. For me Effie was such a person - we happened to share a room in Paris (for the GLAM meeting that is mentioned in the picture gallery above). Like most hotel rooms in Paris it was tiny, but with Effie it immediately felt like we knew each other for years, it was so easy to relax around her. We talked a lot about our jobs but most memorable for me were the insights she genereously shared with me of becoming a mom comparably late in life, something we have in common. Her words were invaluable for me when I became a mom myself a few years later and I will treasure them even more now. Thänk you Effie for your generosity to our movement, but also to me and many other individuals who were lucky enough to cross your path. Sit tibi terra levis. --Claudia.Garad (talk) 18:18, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
I met Effie when I heard about the Smithsonian's open access initiative. I was still new in SI and wanted to get my small museum unit to be part of Open Access. Effie led that project brilliantly and over time we passed eachother at conferences and other Smithsonian meetings. Recently a couple weeks ago we were on the same Smithsonian conference panel on ethical returns and collections data. We the Smithsonian community and museum digital in general have lost one of our brightest and most courageous leaders. I am so grateful I got the opportunity to cross paths with her for a couple years. 160.111.254.17 (talk) 18:45, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
So much was left undone and death comes too soon. From a Wikimedia community perspective this is a setback for United States community organization, institutional partnerships, outreach to women, representation of women in biographies, and institutional support for LGBT+ Wikimedia editors. Effie was well and peacefully liked by Wikimedia editors whom many others found argumentative, and at the same time, brought peace into conversations. Effie was a person who used their professional skillset as a model for what good contributions to open media could be, and for explaining the impact of sharing knowledge with the world. She was among the earliest professionals to take a stand for free and open knowledge, and she did this at a time when doing so invited ridicule. Early in my role as a Wikimedian in Residence she understood the position and gave me acknowledgement and encouragement even while I had my own doubts about what I was doing. Every day is precious and I am again reminded that if you have something to say or do with someone then you should do it immediately because tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Have your peace Effie and thanks. Bluerasberry (talk)19:37, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
I had several wonderful conversations with Effie over the last few years, especially about sharing untold stories of notable women on Wikipedia. I always looked forward to those meetings because Effie was whip smart, insightful, funny, and had the best eyeglasses I've ever seen. :) She was such a force in this movement, and we're made weaker with this loss. Thinking of her family and colleagues especially. Thank you for your passionate work in Open, Effie. Jami (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:28, 14 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
On behalf of Sindhi Wikipedia community, We're so sorry for your loss. My sincerest condolences for her friends, colleagues,family and Wikimedians at this time. You have my deepest sympathy and unwavering support. Wishing you peace, comfort, courage, and lots of love at this time of sorrow. My heart goes out to you at this difficult time. JogiAsad (talk) 03:55, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Unbelievable, I knew here recently, but I felt her love for the Movement, GLAM, open access and women representation (the presentation we had at Wikimania 2022). Sincere condolences to the family. --Camelia (talk) 09:53, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
There are things you just wish you never had to write. Effie was one of the few people that I ever felt I could call a friend in the US; in a place where I was a foreigner and a stranger, Effie always made me feel welcomed. We've seen in these few days all the range of emotions that Effie elicited on people: love, kindness, joy, wittiness, passion, feistiness, cheerfulness, just to name a few. We all had different glimpses of the light that this wonderful, complex person that was Effie had to offer, in both her professional and personal life; my piece of the mosaic will remember her enjoying long walks outside on parks and on the streets, talking about everything and nothing, embracing the luxury of spending time with friends and family. I'm just simply grateful for those gifts that Effie offered without limits or constraints, always showing up as her true self, without expecting anything in return. We all wish we could have done more to show you how much you were loved and appreciated, and how big of a loss this is for all of us in so different dimensions. Goodbye, my friend. I hope you can finally find the peace that you weren't able to find among us. Scann (talk) 13:27, 15 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Thank you, Effie! I owe you a thank you for rushing to help us when we were making a statement to defend open access policies. I was very proud to have you voice our concern with a voice that reached out further than ours. I hope to remember to thank more, sooner, more often. – Susannaanas (talk) 15:08, 17 December 2022 (UTC)Reply
Effie was one of the most dynamic, inspirational, kind and thoughtful people (and a fellow Smithsonian colleague) I've ever known. She really made a massive difference in the attitude at the Smithsonian and at other cultural heritage institutions by highlighting the benefits of open access and backing that up with her own research. I don't think we at the Smithsonian would have moved forward as quickly with the Open Access Initiative without Effie's prodding, and we all owe her a great debt of gratitude for that. I remember her confident, passionate support of Wikimedia projects, and she deserves wide recognition for supporting the American Women's History Initiative at the Smithsonian and related Wiki projects. I hadn't seen Effie since the late February 2020 Open Access launch party, and I didn't know she had been struggling with severe depression, which alas took her from us. I'm so sorry, Effie, and I will miss you. You've left us all a great legacy. Uncommon fritillary (talk) 03:50, 3 January 2023 (UTC)Reply
This Wikipedia user has passed away. Condolences may be added below. 
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
