Museum Studies Faculty

Museum Studies Distance Education Instructor

Erin A. Anderson is an art conservator specializing in objects conservation based in New York City. She currently acts as the website coordinator for Art Bio Matters, a community of curators, conservators, and scientists interested in the research of biological materials in cultural heritage. Read More  

Assistant Professor & Graduate Advisor, Museum Studies

Suse Anderson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Museum Studies at The George Washington University. Prior to joining GW, Anderson was Director of Audience Experience at The Baltimore Museum of Art, where she was responsible for creating a seamless and positive experience of the BMA for visitors to the museum and across its digital platforms.
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Part-time Faculty, Professorial Lecturer of Provenance Research, Museum Studies Program

Jacquelyn Clements holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the Maryland Institute College of Art, an MA in Classics from Florida State University, and a PhD in the History of Art from Johns Hopkins University.
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Deputy Director, Corcoran; Associate Professor and Head of Museum Studies Online Certificate

Professor Coughlin has an interest in the conservation challenges of contemporary museum collections, particularly with respect to plastic. Before coming to GW full time, she worked for five years in the Objects Conservation Laboratory of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History where she conserved objects as diverse as FDR’s leg braces and Star War’s C-3PO and R2-D2. Read More  

Part-time Faculty, Professorial Lecturer of Museums as Learning Institutions, Museum Studies Program

Theresa Esterlund’s professional career spanned 30 years as an educator and leader at the Smithsonian Institution, private museums, art centers, and both public and private schools.
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Part-time Faculty, Professorial Lecturer of Preventive Conservation Concepts and Techniques, Museum Studies Program

Jakki is an art conservator based in the NYC area. She was an Object Conservator at the Brooklyn Museum for 14 years, where she worked with fine and decorative art, historic, ethnographic and archaeological collections.
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Retired Assistant Director for Collections and Archives, National Museum of American History, Museum Studies Program

Bob Horton studied history at Brown, Ohio State and Yale, then started his archival career at the State Archives of Indiana.
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Professorial Lecturer in Museum Studies

With over 15 years of experience, Rebecca has worked with a variety of collections in storage and on exhibition. Read More  

Senior Collections Manager, Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

Senior Collections Manager at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art; Museum Registrar, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.
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Part-time Faculty, Professorial Lecturer of Visitor Perspectives: Museum Evaluation in Exhibitions, Museum Studies Program

Paula Lynn has worked in art museums for over twenty years and has served as the head of planning and evaluation for the National Gallery of Art since 2014.
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Adjunct Professor of Collections Management, Museum Studies Program

While a graduate student at the George Washington University Museum Studies Program, Professor Palmer was a student of Marie Malaro. She now applies the same rigor to the collections management class that she co-teaches with Deb Hull-Walski. Read More  

Program Head, Associate Professor & Graduate Advisor, Museum Studies; Faculty Advisor Museum Studies Program

Before joining the Museum Studies faculty in 2009, Professor Schiavo worked in museums in the DC area, including the City Museum, Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, and the National Building Museum, where she curated Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s.
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Adjunct Professorial Lecturer of Museum Fundraising, Museum Studies Program

For more than 35 years, Kathy Dwyer Southern has provided leadership in major museums, cultural and philanthropic organizations, associations and government in the Washington, Virginia and Maryland region.

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Assistant Professor & Graduate Advisor, Museum Studies

Max A. van Balgooy is a national leader in historical interpretation and community engagement, with extensive experience in developing solutions in collaboration with diverse audiences, including volunteers, staff, trustees, residents, scholars, design professionals, business leaders, and elected officials.
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Director, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum; Associate Professor, Museum Studies

A museum director for over two decades, John Wetenhall served for nine years as Executive Director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, leading a $150 million capital and endowment transformation.
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Museum Studies Distance Education Instructor, Museum Studies Program

Zinnia Willits is the Executive Director of the Southeastern Museums Conference (SEMC) and former Director of Collections and Operations at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina.
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