Board of Directors Bios
Claudine Brown
Director, Arts and Culture Program, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY
Claudine Brown is Director of the Arts and Culture Program for the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She has a long career with museums including thirteen years in various positions at the Brooklyn Museum. She left Brooklyn in 1990 to direct the Smithsonian initiative to create a national museum of African American History and Culture where she established the groundwork that led to the authorizing legislation to create the museum. Claudine also served the Smithsonian as Deputy Assistant for Museums. She serves on numerous Boards, most recently as President of the Board of Grantmakers in the Arts.
David Carr
Writer, librarian and consultant in cultural institutions, Carrboro, NC
David is a writer and consultant, and a former faculty member at Rutgers University and the University of North Carolina. To many, he is best known for his perceptive and provocative writing about museums and the roles they must play in a changing world. He is sought as a speaker and highly regarded in both the museum and library communities. His essays have been collected in two books, The Promise of Cultural Institutions and A Place Not a Place.
Terry Davis (Vice-Chair)
President & CEO, American Association of State and Local History
Terry is the Executive Director of the American Association for State and Local History. She has developed this organization into one of the leadership associations in the museum field. Terry has become one of the prime movers among museum leaders to recognize the need for a comprehensive research agenda for history museums. She is actively building a growing forum of history museum leaders who are seeking ways to integrate significant research and evaluation into their institutional practices.
Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, The Urban Institute, Washington, DC
Dr. Jackson is a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center at the Urban Institute and the Director of the Culture, Creativity and Communities Program. Her research focuses on urban policy; neighborhood revitalization and comprehensive community planning; the politics of race, ethnicity, and gender in urban settings, and the role of arts and culture in communities. She is the principal researcher and writer of the Urban Institute's Arts and Culture Indicators Project, establishing indicators of cultural vitality in cities.
Emlyn Koster, Ph.D. (Chair)
President & CEO, Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Dr. Koster received a Ph.D. in geology at the University of Ottawa and served as a faculty member in Montreal and Saskatchewan following that experience. After coal exploration and dinosaur fieldwork in a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Alberta and China's Gobi Desert, his career focus shifted to the public's view of science. From 1986-91, he directed a new natural history museum near Calgary, which Queen Elizabeth II bestowed royal appellation upon in 1989. From 1991-96 he served as CEO at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. He is on a number of international boards, and nationally, represents the science center field on the Committee for Public Understanding of Science and Technology of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Patrick Losinski
Executive Director, Columbus Metropolitan Museum, Columbus, OH
Patrick Losinski is Executive Director of the Columbus Metropolitan Museum Library, one of the most used library systems in the country. Under Patrick's direction, the library system has consistently ranked at the top of its class through such indicators as circulation, customer visits and reference questions. Patrick has recently served as Chairman of the Board of the Urban LIbraries Council and is widely recognized for his leadership skills.
Robert S. Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of Library Science & Lillian Bradshaw Endowed Chair, School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman's University
Robert S. Martin is Professor Emeritus in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University. He currently serves on the National Council on the Humanities and the Executive Board of the Urban Libraries Council. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Previously he was Professor at Texas Woman's University; Director and Librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission; and Associate Dean of Libraries for Special Collections at Louisiana State University. He has authored or edited numerous books and journal articles on library management, the history of libraries and librarianship, and the history of the exploration and mapping of the American West and has been elected and/or appointed to numerous positions of leadership in service organizations for library and archives professionals. His work has been recognized with numerous honors and awards, including Distinguished Service Awards from both the Texas Library Association and the Society of Southwest Archivists; and the Justin Winsor Prize from the American Library Association.
Jeffrey H. Patchen, Ph.D. (Vice-Chair)
President and CEO, The Children's Museum (TCM) of Indianapolis
Dr. Patchen is President of the largest children's museum in the world and a national leader in family learning and education. Previously, Patchen was Senior Program Officer at The Getty Education Institute for the Arts; Lyndhurst Endowed Chair of Excellence in Arts Education and Associate Professor of Music Education at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga; and State Arts Consultant, Center for School Improvement and Practice, Department of Education, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Rus Peotter
General Manager, WGBY Public Television
Rus is General Manager of WGBY, public television for Springfield, MA, and Vice President of WGBH, the Boston-based leader in public television. Under his leadership WGBY has won a series of awards for outstanding programming, especially in the development of community-related features. In his prior position as head of Maine Public Broadcasting, Rus spearheaded a museum/public broadcasting model that won national acclaim.
Laura Roberts (Treasurer)
Principal, Roberts Consulting
As principal of Roberts Consulting, Laura has earned an outstanding reputation for helping museums build their capacity to become more relevant to their communities' needs. She is a former director of the New England Museum Association and an experienced educator, teaching at the Boston University School of Management, Tufts University and Bank Street College.
Ellen Rosenthal
President and CEO, Conner Prairie, Fishers, IN
Ellen Rosenthal became President and CEO of Conner Prairie Museum in 2005 after serving as the museum's vice president for six years. Under her leadership, Conner Prairie has achieved several recognitions, including reaccreditation by the American Association of Museums, the Indiana Achievement Award and BKD Indiana Excellence Award. In 2008 Conner Prairie recorded the highest fundraising and attendance rates in its history.
Jerry R. Schubel, Ph.D.
President & CEO, The Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, CA
Dr. Schubel received a Ph.D. in Oceanography from Johns Hopkins University and for the first 25 years of his professional life was a researcher and academic administrator, including being Provost of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1994, he was recruited by the New England Aquarium to be its President and CEO and has focused his efforts on the informal science/free-choice learning world. He was at the New England Aquarium until 2001 and since 2002, has served as the President and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific. He sits on a number of Advisory Boards and in 2000 the Massachusetts Maritime Academy awarded him an honorary DSc degree. In recognition of his service to the National Research Council he recently was designated a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
