About Me

I am an accomplished and award-winning museum professional, business owner, and former consultant, with a wide range of management, leadership, design, and hands-on project experience. My strong suits are strategic planning, exhibitions, museum programming, museum operations, donor cultivation, grant writing, human resources, and financial management.

In my current position as Vice President of Exhibitions at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I oversee Content, Design, Project Management, and Interpretive Media. I have developed, designed, and project managed exhibitions and public programs for numerous cultural institutions and have held a number of executive and senior management positions at museums over the past 30 years. I've  managed budgets as large at $22 million, have been involved in several capital improvement projects, and have extensive experience with master and interpretive planning.

During my tenure at The Nat, the Museum has won several awards including, most recently, an Honorable Mention for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) 2017 Annual Excellence in Exhibition Competition for the permanent exhibition Extraordinary Ideas from Ordinary People: A History of Citizen Science. Other awards include AAM's Overall Excellence Award for the 2016 Annual Excellence in Exhibitions Competition, AAM's 2016 Sustainability Excellence Award, and AAM's 2015 Excellence in Label Writing Award, all of which were for the permanent exhibition Coast to Cactus in Southern California. The digital team also won an AAM 2016 Media and Technology MUSE Award for the three-part video series, Punk Skunk.

In 2006, I was recognized as a next-generation leader who demonstrates creativity and innovation in leadership, learning, and organizational change, by the convergence of Museum Talent Project. I have been very active exploring how museums can more effectively serve those in the autism community and those with sensory processing challenges.

I hold a master’s degree in museum studies from John F. Kennedy University and a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of New Hampshire. I have served on the board of the Western Museums Association (WMA), National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME), a professional network of the American Alliance of Museums, and currently serves on the board of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative (BPOC).