I’m delighted to announce that the Board of Directors of MCN has just appointed Lyn Hsieh, Andrea Ledesma, Brittany Nazario, Seema Rao, and Jessica Warchall to serve on the Board for a 3-year term effective this November. Join me in congratulating each of them on their appointment.
As new faces join the board, others will be leaving when their term ends this November: Mitch Sava (MCN’s outgoing President), Courtney OCallaghan, Nathan Adkisson, and Doug Allen. Join me in thanking them for their time and service over the past 3 years.
Eric Longo
Executive Director
2021 Nominating Committee
- Mitch Sava, President
- Yvonne Lee, VP/President-Elect
- Alexis Light, Director
- nikhil trivedi, Director
- Eric Longo, Executive Director
Lyn Hsieh
Department Manager, Education | The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY)
Lyn Hsieh is currently the Department Manager of the Education Department at the Museum of Modern Art where she leads a team overseeing operations (staffing, financial planning, impact measurement), strategy (digital transformation, revenue generation), and trustee relations. Lyn brings extensive experience in strategizing operations in the creative industry and a decade of experience in the digital field.
As the Head of Education and Communications Department at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, she formed and implemented strategic plans, as well as fundraised creatively in support of museum programming and operational needs. She later led a team to build the new Fubon Art Museum in Taipei, in collaboration with architect Renzo Piano. She was involved in creating digital content for Gutai: Splendid Playground at the Guggenheim Museum in 2013. In the Greater China region, she successfully grew the museum’s digital community and launched the first interactive app for museum visitors in 2014. During Covid-19, she built up the infrastructure for MoMA Education Department to grow digital learning programs, which led to a broader reach to diverse audiences.
She has 15 years of project management experience across education, FMCG, Art & Culture sectors in the U.S., Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Germany. Previously, she served in various Fortune 500 companies in Finance, Marketing, and Business Development capacities, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and others.
Lyn holds a BA in Economics from National Taiwan University, an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University, and a certificate in Art History from the University of Cambridge.
Andrea Ledesma
Product Manager | Navigation North (Chicago, IL)
Andrea Ledesma recently joined Navigation North as a Product Manager specializing in education and museums. Before that, she worked at the Field Museum in Chicago where she served as product manager for the museum’s website and designs, and led other projects that contributed to the museum’s online presence. Andrea also works as a part-time consultant to 1909 Digital with a focus on marketing and systems implementation.
A self-proclaimed digital public human, she’s endlessly fascinated with how technology connects people to history, culture, and each other. Her expertise includes product management, digital strategy, and content development. She’s excited to imagine with others the future of museum technology—and find ways to make it happen.
Over the years, Andrea has volunteered extensively with MCN, including chairing the MCN Scholarship Committee, contributing research to MCN’s 50th-anniversary initiatives, and co-chairing the annual conference program for 2019 and 2020.
Andrea holds a Master’s Degree in Public Humanities from Brown University.
Brittany Nazario
Visitor Experience Manager | The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens (Jacksonville, FL)
Brittany Nazario is a Visitor Experience Manager specializing in Social Media and Bourbon Breaks at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida. Assumed responsibilities from previous roles at the Museum include Membership, Volunteer Recruitment, Website and Content Management, Development, Digital Events, and Database Analysis.
She is a founding member of Museums as Progress, a group dedicated to creating more equitable and innovative cultural organizations through problem-space research. In 2020, she co-presented “This isn’t a question but a comment… Unpacking Misogyny in Museum Tech” at the Museum Computer Network Conference. She is also a member of the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and worked to raise over $100k in a 7-day grassroots campaign to support local activists arrested while protesting for Black Lives. Brittany co-moderates the LGBTQ+ Museum Staff & Students group, which seeks to create a safe, supportive space for LGBTQ+ museum professionals.
Brittany graduated from the University of North Florida with a degree in Anthropology and has a Google Certificate in Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design.
Seema Rao
Deputy Director & CXO | Akron Art Museum (Akron, OH)
Seema Rao is currently the deputy director and chief experience officer of the Akron Art Museum in northeast Ohio. She has more than twenty years of experience is museum at the edge of collection, digital, and engagement. She’s passionate about making museums accessible and enjoyable. She’s the sometimes author of Museum 2.0.
Jessica Warchall
Manager of Communications | Terra Foundation for American Art (Chicago, IL)
Jessica Warchall leads communications for the Terra Foundation for American Art, an international foundation that supports individuals, organizations, and communities to advance expansive understandings of American art. She plays a role in increasing awareness of the foundation’s programs and impact through developing and implementing a global communications strategy and supporting a strategic visioning process, and she seeks opportunities to develop collaborative and sustainable working models.
Jessica is interested in including many voices to tell stories that encourage deeper understandings of our shared cultural histories and making the study of objects and the people who create them more accessible through the use of language and digital technologies.
Prior to joining the foundation, she held positions at The Andy Warhol Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as worked as a digital communications and content strategy consultant for museums and cultural institutions. Before her work in museums, she was an editor in textbook publishing.
Jessica holds an MA in art history, with a focus on medieval art, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and both an MS and BS in news-editorial journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.