Following the 2015 Call for MCN Board Directors Candidates, we received 20 applications for only 4 Director vacancies. After reviewing each candidate’s outstanding application, the Nominating Committee selected the four candidates it believed best match the needs of the Board in the next three years as outlined in the Call for Candidates. The Board approved their nomination earlier this month, and we’re delighted to announce the appointment of the following four new members to MCN’s Board of Directors: Elizabeth Bollwerk, Suse Cairns, Bert Degenhart Drenth, and Laura Mann. They will start three-year terms next week in Minneapolis. Please help us welcome them in their new roles.
Eric Longo, Executive Director, MCN
Elizabeth Bollwerk
Archaeological Analyst, Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery, Thomas Jefferson Foundation
As an archaeologist who works with digital data, Elizabeth collaborates with researchers to analyze historic records and artifacts using digital methods to develop new ideas and interpretations of the past and, by extension, the present.
Elizabeth is passionate about the value of community engagement and has worked with a variety of cultural heritage organizations to gather feedback from audiences and members to ensure those institutions meet the needs of their communities. She is an active proponent of making museum collections and their associated data more accessible and relevant to the general public.
Elizabeth has served as MCN’s Volunteer Coordinator since 2012 and as co-Scholarship Coordinator since 2014. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. Elizabeth has published pieces on Open Authority and Digital Public Archaeology in Museums and Social Issues and Advances in Archaeological Practice and is currently co-editing an upcoming volume entitled Museums as Critical Community Assets – A How to Guide. When she isn’t poring over artifacts or old maps, you can find her running or exploring the history and great outdoors of Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Suse Cairns
Director of Audience Experience, Baltimore Museum of Art
Suse is a prolific writer, and regular presenter at conferences including Museums & the Web (USA), Museums Australia, INTERCOM, MCN (USA), and the National Digital Forum (NZ). She has been published in CURATOR The Museum Journal, on the Museums Association UK website, and other websites and publications. Additionally, Suse has teaching experience at The University of Newcastle.
In 2015, Suse was Program Co-Chair for the MCN conference. She is on the Advisory Board for the NMC Horizon Report – Museum Edition and was on the founding Advisory Board for the Open Knowledge Foundation Network Australia.
Suse holds a PhD (Creative Arts), BArts (Comms – Print Journalism) from Charles Sturt University, and a BFA (Hons – 1st class, Faculty Medal) from The University of Newcastle. Since moving to Baltimore in 2014, Suse has fallen in love with the city she now calls home. You should visit her there one day.
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Bert Degenhart Drenth
Chief Technology Officer, Axiell Group
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Laura Mann
Principal, Frankly, Green + Webb USA
In 2013, Laura joined Frankly, Green + Webb to launch the firm’s US office. Her work as a consultant in grounded in her years of hands-on experience in digital technology. She’s deeply committed to providing research, insight and design solutions that deliver real value to organizations and their audiences. She has recently led projects for SFMOMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walker Art Center and Wellcome Collection.
Laura holds a B.A. in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and she was a Ph.D. Mellon Fellow in the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. When she’s not working, you’ll find her cycling around Oakland, California with her twins in the back of her cargo bike.
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