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President

Aldona Jonaitis

WMA BOARD OF DIRECTORS   

WMA Board of Directors meet for the in Anchorage following the annual meeting in September 2008.

PRESIDENT (Executive Committee)

Aldona Jonaitis

Independent

Art historian Aldona Jonaitis studies Northwest Coast Native art.  She has published several books on aspects of the art, including From the Land of the Totem Poles: Northwest Coast Art at the American Museum of Natural History (1988), Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch  (1991), The Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine  (1999), and Art of the Northwest Coast (2006).  She was on the faculty and served as an administrator at the State University at Stony Brook from 1975-1989, then became Vice President for Public Programs at the American Museum of Natural History where she stayed for four years. Currently she serves as Director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks.  She has served on the board of the American Association of Museums, and is currently on the boards of the National Science Collections Alliance and AAM-ICOM as well as WMA.  Aldona lives happily in Fairbanks, Alaska with two horses, three dogs and one cat, and bakes fancy cakes for relaxation. 

“WMA is a wonderful organization, both for experienced and relatively new museum professionals.  I urge all my staff to attend meetings, become involved in the organization, and propose papers.  Everyone who does so returns to Fairbanks inspired with new and exciting ideas.”

VICE PRESIDENT, MEMBERSHIP (Membership Committee Chair; Development Committee Chair / Executive Committee)

William Harris

Senior VP Development & Marketing, California Science Center Foundation, Los Angeles, California

William has twenty years of advancement experience with particular expertise in capital campaigns, major and special gifts, gift planning and annual fund programs. Prior to joining the California Science Center to direct a  $140 million campaign, William held positions at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as Director of Major Gifts for the College of Letters and Science, Director of Social Sciences Development, and Director of Development for the RAND/UCLA Center for Soviet Studies. He serves on the AAM Development and Membership (DAM) Board of Directors, and served as DAM’s Vice Chair, Programs for the 2004 annual meeting. He continues in this capacity for the 2005 AAM annual meeting.  

William has represented the AAM Development and Membership Committee on the WMA board since 2002.  He has also served on the WMA program committee for the 2002, 2003, and 2004 annual meetings.  William is Host Committee Co-Chair for the WMA 2005 annual meeting in Pasadena & Los Angeles.

“I share the WMA's values of advancing the important role of museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, historical societies and other cultural institutions through building camaraderie, collaborations and advancing best practices. Never self-satisfied, the board constantly explores and acts on ways to better meet the needs and address the challenges of our membership. I see my role as keeping a focus at the board level and in the annual meeting programming on the importance of marketing, communications and fundraising as a component of ensuring the vitality of our institutions. As a member of the Board, I believe that I can help keep the WMA thriving and relevant to our members.”

VICE PRESIDENT, ANNUAL MEETING (Executive Committee)

Cheryl Hinton
Executive Director, Barona Cultural Center & Museum, Lakeside, California,

Cheryl Hinton has been Director/Chief Curator of the Barona Cultural Center and Museum since 1999 and helped open the facility for the Barona Band of Mission Indians. She received her MA in Anthropology from San Diego State University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, American Anthropological Association, the American Association of Museums, and the Western Museums Association. She served on the WMA Program Committee in 2005 and is an IMLS Peer Reviewer. In 2007, Cheryl was named Woman of the Year in Art and Culture by the San Diego/ East County Chamber of Commerce Women in Leadership Program. Her former museum experiences include Museum Anthropologist at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, first Curator of the Agua Caliente Tribal Museum in Palm Springs and Southwest Curator at the San Diego Museum of Man. As adjunct faculty at University of San Diego and Grossmont College in Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies, Cheryl specializes in Southern California Indians, from archaeology to contemporary culture; American Indian stereotypes; and repatriation (NAGPRA). (Her publications also appear under the name Cheryl Sanders Jeffrey). She and folk musician Jim Hinton, their five children, two grandchildren and two dogs live in La Mesa California. Whenever possible, they camp along the California coast or in the desert Southwest--in between wildfires.

"It is an honor to serve the WMA as a Board Member. As the tribal museum representative for the sovereign nation of the Barona Band of Mission Indians, we welcome a growing WMA partnership that facilitates diversity and cultural understanding among our audiences. Personally, I look forward to working more closely with the warm, supportive group of Museum professionals that comprise the WMA."

TREASURER (Executive Committee)
Julie Stein Director, Burke Museum of Natural History and Cultural, Seattle, Washington.

SECRETARY (Executive Committee)

Jim Tharp

Treasurer and Past President, Museum of Moab

Jim has served as a Trustee of the Museum of Moab since 2004.  During this time he has held the position of President for two terms (2005 - 2006), and is currently Treasurer.  As in many small museums, Trustees at the Museum of Moab are called upon to stopgap a number of staff functions.  During his tenure on the Board, Jim has initiated and guided the successful completion of the Institutional MAPS program, developed a new website, guided the implementation of Past Perfect (including successful conversion of all accession records, photo collections, and physical inventory of all 2,500 objects in the Museum collections).  Currently Jim is assisting the Director in launching its accreditation initiative.  In 2006, Jim was a member of the WMA program committee and presenter for its conference in Boise. Since attending a Getty program for Board Presidents and CEO’s, Jim has been an avid student of issues relating to governance and the dynamic relationship between Boards and Staff.

Beyond the Museum world, Jim has served on the Board of the Moab Youth Garden Project and works intimately with the Board of the Moab Music Festival. Other work in the non-profit world has included a variety of volunteer positions ( e.g. for In God’s Love We Deliver, for the National Park Service) and advising local non-profit boards on governance and financial issues. Retired for several years, Jim was formerly in systems development for Citibank. 

“As a person on a steep learning curve, I have truly benefited from WMA as a source of knowledge and very important personal contacts. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a dedicated group of museum professionals as we have in the WMA.  I hope I can help in the Association’s professional development efforts, and particularly hope I can expand the Association’s reach into Museum’s Boardrooms throughout the region.”

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

David Porter
Executive Director, Clackamas Heritage Partners, Oregon City, Oregon

“The Western Museum Association and its members have been a great resource for me in the past nine years as I've worked to lead the Interpretive Center. The generous spirit, professionalism, opportunities for learning and challenges, and good humor this organization fosters make me want to share it with others. I am honored to work on this board with so many excellent colleagues.”

Lisa Anderson
CEO, Mesa Historical Museum, Mesa, Arizona.

Redmond Barnett

Head of Exhibits, Washington State Historical Society

Redmond has headed  the exhibits department at the Washington State Historical Society, which operates the Washington State History Museum, since 1996, helping to create exhibits interpreting the second most populous state in the West while also presenting Smithsonian and other national exhibits.  He has raised funds and managed a major construction project.   He has served on WMA Program Committees, committees and board of historical and educational organizations, has organized WMA panels, helped bring the WMA to his city in 2004, and now serves on the AAM Curators Committee.  Trained as an historian (A.B., A.M., Ph.D. Harvard University), he embraces complexity, firm decision-making, and (he hopes) collaboration and common sense.  

“With the change in executive directors, the Board has an unusual responsibility and opportunity to examine WMA’s operations, preserve what is best and improve what isn’t.”

Joe Brennan
Director of Facilities, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California.

"We must learn from the mistakes of others, life is too short to make them all ourselves!"

Jacqueline Cabrera

Associate Registrar for the Getty Villa, J. Paul Getty Museum; Registrar Committee-Western Region

Jacqueline Cabrera is the Associate Registrar for the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, California, Chair of the Registrar Committee Western Region and a board member of the Registrar Committee – A.A.M and the Western Museum of Associations. At the Getty Villa she coordinates and negotiates loans and shipments to the collection for special exhibitions and manages the antiquities collection; tracking the 43,992 objects on display and in storage. In 1997 she assisted on the move of the collections from the Getty Villa to the new Getty Center; then was the lead registrar for the move of the antiquities collection back to the Villa for reinstallation in the newly renovated Getty Villa Museum in 2005.  As the Chair of the RC-WR she is oversees a professional development program for 9 western states full of registrars and collection managers and manages 26 elected and appointed positions that serve the membership. Most recently she organized and conducted a two day training review for the new Registrars Department at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt and is a guest lecturer for the UCLA/Getty Master's Program on the Conservation of Ethnographic and Archaeological Materials spring 2009 course on Managing Collections for Museums, Libraries and Archives. Over the years Jacqueline has served on the Program Committees for the W.M.A., California Association of Museums and Art Table Inc.; served as an Art and Architecture Tour Docent for the Venice Art Walk; served as a Board member for Urban Art, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of out door sculpture in the City of L.A.; served as a Grant Panel Reviewer for the City of L.A.; in 2004 she completed the Riordan Volunteer Development Leadership Program and interned with the Red Cross – Pasadena Chapter’s Board that same year.  Prior to joining the Getty in 1996 she was the Registrar of the Long Beach Museum of Art and previously as a Painting Department Assistant at Sotheby’s.  During her college years Jacqueline interned at the L.A. County’s Natural History Museum and L.A.C.M.A.  Jacqueline has a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from U.S.C. 

Bruce Eldredge

Executive Director and CEO of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming.

Eldredge has served as a museum director for 30 years. In addition to his leadership roles at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, and The Hubbard Museum, Eldredge has served as director for the Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas; Portsmouth Museums, Portsmouth Virginia; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Muskegon Museum of Art, Michigan, and the Frederic Remington Art Museum, Odgensburg, New York. He is currently an Accreditation Visiting Committee team member and a MAPI and MAP Governance reviewer.  He serves as a board member of the Western Association of Museums and has served on their Annual Meeting Program Committee, which he co-chaired in 2004.  His community and volunteer activities are numerous and currently include service as an Executive Committee member and board member of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.  In 2005, Eldredge was elected to the Board of Trustees of Group Health Cooperative (GHC), a 2.2 Billion Dollar healthcare provider and insurer representing 550,000 members.  He serves on GHC’s Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, Nominating Committee and Development Committee.  Bruce earned his  Bachelor of Arts in American History & Geography from Ohio Wesleyan University, his  Master of Art in Museum Administration from Texas Tech University, and is a graduate of the  Museum Management Institute (now Museum Leadership Institute) sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Foundation – 2003.
 

Melanie Fales

Executive Director, Boise Art Museum

Melanie has more than ten years of art museum education experience and over three years of classroom experience as an art educator for students pre-k through ninth grade.  As a member of Boise Art Museum’s senior management team, Melanie directs BAM’s education program and coordinates education department employees and interns as well as the museum’s docent program, which is comprised of 55 volunteers who provide free interactive tours and hands-on workshops for more than 10,000 students each year.  In addition to her education role at BAM, she also served as BAM’s Interim Executive Director for 14 months in 2006 and 2007 during the search for a permanent director.  Melanie is currently a member of the WMA Program Committee, the Meridian Technical Charter High School Advisory Committee and is adjunct faculty for Boise State University and the University of Idaho.

Independent, Los Angeles, California.

Ted Greenberg has been active in the museum field for over thirty years. Being the first paid professional registrar at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley, CA, he oversaw the first expansion of that facility. During that time, Ted was a student at JFK University, where he eventually graduated in 1980 with a Masters in museum Studies. Ted eventually worked at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco from 1984-1999, holding the position of Senior Registrar. In 1999, Ted left to work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until November of 2006 as head of the Registrar's office. Ted has also taught for many years at JFK University, where upon his departure, an award was established in his name to honor the outstanding students in their studies of Collections Management issues and trends. Ted has been active for many years in WMA as a presenter and in 2001 was co-program chair for the annual meeting in Pasadena. That same year, Ted received the Director's Chair from WMA. Ted is also active in the Registrar's Committee-Western Region and Registrar's Committee-AAM.  Surprisingly, this is the first time that Ted has been elected to the board (he was automatically placed on the board as RC-WR chair last year), even though many people have thought that he has previously served on the board.

"WMA is a great organization!!  The people care for the profession and the betterment of their institutions. When we all come together at the annual meeting, the dedication of the all the members is apparent by their participation in providing quality panels, ongoing discussions and wanting to also have fun and great time.  With the board reorganization, the hopes of an even better WMA can only be achieved with great leadership and all member's support."

Executive Director, Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, Palm Springs, California

Michael Hammond feels like he has been in the museum field his entire life as museums have always been a major part of his life. He is trained as an archaeologist and has participated and supervised excavations in England, Lebanon, Israel, Greece and the United States. More recently he has served as the director of Historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC, the executive director of The Museum at Warm Springs and is currently the executive director of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs. He has served as the vice-president of the North Carolina Museums Council and served on the council of the American Association for State and Local History. He has been an IMLS reviewer, served on several NEH review panels and served on the faculty of the Seminar for Historic Administration. Michael served as the program co-chair for the 2001 WMA annual meeting in Palm Springs and has served on several program meetings since then. He was the 1998 recipient of the WMA Director's Chair Award.

“I attended my first WMA meeting two months after moving west and realized immediately that it was truly a dedicated professional organization. More importantly, it places service to its individual members and organizations at the top of the list. I would to continue that emphasis and help achieve even higher levels.”

Sarah Kennington

Registrar, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, California

Sarah Kennington has served as the chief registrar for the Fowler Museum at UCLA since 1982. She is responsible for oversight of registration components in the management of the collections, including loans and traveling exhibitions. Professional service has included positions on the executive boards of the Western Museums Association, the California Association of Museums, ArtTable, and the Registrars Committee – Western Region; as well as the Advisory Committee of the Museum Loan Network and consultations with the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles and the California Association of Museums. Personal interests include gardening and explorations in California’s high desert. 

"It’s hard to imagine a more worthy association or having  more fun participating in the work of its board and committees. My enthusiasm and commitment are based on over fifteen years of experience and the accompanying professional and personal growth. Through the Western Museums Association I’ve acquired skills, honed my sense of ethics and confidence, and developed a network of  wonderful colleagues and friendships."

Allyson Lazar

Principal, Orinda Group

Allyson Lazar fell in love with the museum world while working at The High
Desert Museum in 1993. Since then, she has served in virtually every aspect
of the museum field,  with a special emphasis in collections management. In
2000, she was the first recipient of the Ted Greenberg Award for Excellence
in Collections Management from the Museum Studies program at John F.
Kennedy University. Allyson has worked at a number of museums--almost all
in the Western region--including the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
County, the Oakland Museum of California and the Judah L. Magnes Museum. In
addition, she was a principal for four years with Orinda Group, a museum
consulting firm based in Los Angeles. She has moderated and presented at
WMA conferences and served on the 2006 program committee.

"My affiliation with WMA continues to benefit me in untold ways--consistently exposing me to new information, introducing me to colleagues and new friends. When students or emerging professionals ask me what they can do to further their careers, I always tell them to look to WMA and its standing professional committees."

Mike Nelson   

Manager, Anasazi State Park,  Boulder, Utah

Mike has for the past six years managed the Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder, Utah. Prior to that he managed Edge of the Cedars Museum, and prior to that the Utah Field House of Natural History. He served for several years on the Board of Directors for the Utah Museums Association. Mike finished an undergraduate in Philosophy from Utah State University, and a masters in Archaeology and Parks Management from the University of Utah. He just finished building his own house (literally). He claims he has a good life because he can ride his horse to work, though parking can sometimes be a challenge.

Susan Spero

Associate Professor Museums Studies, John F. Kennedy University