diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 08637be..3d45d56 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
   * Bug fixes to `.get_authors()`
   * `get_authors` now adds a period (.) after given names with a single character and can handle an unlimited number of given names.
   * Moved sf, leaflet, and stringr to from imports to suggests.
+  * Enable `.get_contacts()` to handle cases when there is only one contact.
   
 # NPSutils 0.3.2 "Lost Coast"
   * Add new functions, `load_data_packages()` and `load_data_package()`, which can load data packages (EML in .xml and data in .csv) similarly to the deprecated `load_data_package_deprecated()` function but also allows the data types in the tibbles loaded to be specified based on the information in the metadata.
diff --git a/R/load_core_metadata.R b/R/load_core_metadata.R
index 5ab2cfd..4753534 100644
--- a/R/load_core_metadata.R
+++ b/R/load_core_metadata.R
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ load_core_metadata <- function(ds_ref, path = paste0(getwd(), "/data")){
 #' 
 #' `r lifecycle::badge('experimental')`
 #' 
-#' @description `.get_contacts()` extracts the "contacts" element from EML metadata and returns it as a dataframe with three columsn, first a column indicating that each row is an contact. Second, and column with the contact's name (first last). Third, the contact's email address.
+#' @description `.get_contacts()` extracts the "contacts" element from EML metadata and returns it as a dataframe with two columns, first a column with the contact's name (first last) and second the contact's email address.
 #'
 #' @param metadata an EML formatted R object
 #'
@@ -221,8 +221,16 @@ load_core_metadata <- function(ds_ref, path = paste0(getwd(), "/data")){
   contact <- metadata$dataset$contact
   individual <- NULL
   email <- NULL
+  
+  #if single contact, nest it so that it behaves the same as when there are
+  #multiple contacts:
+  if ("organizationName" %in% names(contact) |
+      "individualName" %in% names(contact)) {
+    contact <- list(contact)
+  }
+  
   for(i in 1:length(seq_along(contact))){
-    #get name as first-laste:
+    #get name as first-last:
     name_list <- unlist(contact[[i]]$individualName, recursive = FALSE)
     if(length(seq_along(name_list)) == 3){
       ind_name <- paste(name_list$givenName1,
diff --git a/docs/news/index.html b/docs/news/index.html
index ce14266..574a728 100644
--- a/docs/news/index.html
+++ b/docs/news/index.html
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ <h3 id="id_2024-0-3-3">2024-10-21<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#id
 <li>
 <code>get_authors</code> now adds a period (.) after given names with a single character and can handle an unlimited number of given names.</li>
 <li>Moved sf, leaflet, and stringr to from imports to suggests.</li>
+<li>Enable <code>.get_contacts()</code> to handle cases when there is only one contact.</li>
 </ul></div>
 </div>
     <div class="section level2">
diff --git a/docs/pkgdown.yml b/docs/pkgdown.yml
index a91fc51..b8553c0 100644
--- a/docs/pkgdown.yml
+++ b/docs/pkgdown.yml
@@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ pkgdown: 2.1.0
 pkgdown_sha: ~
 articles:
   NPSutils: NPSutils.html
-last_built: 2024-10-21T15:46Z
+last_built: 2024-10-21T18:50Z