By MCN Board Member, Desi Gonzalez
I’m thrilled to announce the 2019 MCN Advisory Board for diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion! The mission of MCN’s DEAI Advisory Board is to represent and advocate for the interests of the MCN community on these matters. We were overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm for MCN’s new initiative in DEAI—we received over 40 incredibly strong candidates for 16 spots on the Advisory Board.
Over the next year, the Advisory Board will support and guide the work of MCN in DEAI initiatives and begin our ongoing process to make the organization—and the field of museum technology—more inclusive. I’m excited to welcome our new advisors, who bring a rich panoply of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to our efforts. Congratulations, and I’m looking forward to getting to work!
Rumana Chaudhuri (she/her) is a visitor experience volunteer at the National Museum of the American Indian, helping pioneer human-centered design at the museum. She looks forward to strengthening diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion at MCN and to initiating DEAI-based transformation in museums. Rumana attended Wellesley College, Georgetown University, and George Washington University.
Jim Fishwick (he/him) is an award-winning director, performer, and experience designer based in Melbourne, Australia. He is currently an assistant curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and general manager of Jetpack Theatre Collective. He enjoys promoting queer, trans and non-binary representation in the arts.
In her work as a museum producer and journalist, Erin Harper (she/her) is especially interested in telling stories that challenge common narratives and amplify essential voices. As a member of the LGBTQ community, Erin continuously stands up for inclusion and equality in both the personal and professional realm.
Nora Hernandez (she/her) is an Exhibits Fabricator at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. Her exhibit designs have created palpable experiences for underrepresented stories of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Hernandez is developing an online hub called Atomic Carrots for museums that want to design and fabricate impactful exhibits.
Scarlett Hu (she/her) is the Assistant Director of Getty Digital. In her IT career of 30+ years, she has created opportunities for underprivileged minorities and made attempts to close the digital divide whenever she can. She is an immigrant and a strong believer of “America Can”—she brought an outsourced department back home and won the Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Award in 2014.
Wided Rihana Khadraoui
Wided Khadraoui (she/her) is a Business Development Associate with Art Processors. Previously she managed a commercial art space. She holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and an MA from CSM in Arts and Cultural Enterprise. She is passionate about technology’s potential to foster diversity and inclusion in the creative sector.
Ryan King (he/him) is the Digital Experience Designer at the Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler. Ryan is the co-chair of the Smithsonian GLOBE (LGBTQ) Employee Group and the F|S accessibility task force, and an active member of the AAM LGBTQ Alliance.
Rooted in experiences as a 1.5 generation immigrant in the largest Korean diasporic community in America, Yvonne Lee (she/her) has advocated professionally for strategies of inclusion including Los Angeles County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative. She is the Head of Collection Information and Digital Assets at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Nameiko Miller (she/her) lives in Nassau, Bahamas where she works as a museum curator. She graduated from the University of Florida in 2018 with an MA in Museum Studies. Her master’s thesis, “Beyond the Walls: Inclusion, Equity and Community Engagement in Museums,” examines issues of racial equity and inclusion in museums.
A. Andrea Montiel de Shuman
Andrea (she/her) is a Digital Experience Designer based in Detroit, where she has lived since immigrating from Mexico in 2013. She has been involved a variety of nonprofits that exposed her to consistent DEAI needs. Currently, she is interested in exploring opportunities to use digital in serving traditionally underrepresented audiences, especially indigenous communities.
James Neal (he/him) is a Senior Program Officer in the Office of Library Services of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in Washington, DC. He cultivates and manages discretionary grants in the domain areas of digital inclusion (broadband access and digital literacy), privacy, open data and civic technology, open education resources, and e-books.
Alessandra (she/her) is currently a Digital Coordinator at David Zwirner Gallery in NYC. She recently received her Master’s Degree in Emergent Digital Practices from the University of Denver where she researched art, tech, and disability. In Denver, she managed the online presence for the newly-formed Art of Access Alliance, a partnership between arts organizations highlighting access programs for disability communities.
Mimosa Shah (she/her) is the Adult Program Coordinator at Skokie Public Library, where she develops, manages, and evaluates public programs. As secretary of the library’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, she’s committed to helping increase staff’s knowledge and awareness of issues related to DEAI and how it affects our community.
Halee Sommer (she/her) is the Editorial Associate at the Jewish Museum in New York City, where she bridges the realms of marketing and digital, streamlining all audience-facing content. Halee’s area of focus on the DEAI advisory board is to build strategic initiatives to make MCN economically accessible for all.
Lanae Spruce (she/her) leads the award-winning social engagement team at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She is working to build the museum’s digital presence to foster learning, creativity and shared discovery as a means to transform our understanding of the African American experience, American history, race, and modern society.
Coleman Tharpe (he/him) strives to create inclusive and positive working environments within his companies by evaluating intersectionality, privilege, and power against policies, procedures, and culture. He holds degrees in Anthropology and Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin and splits his time between Austin and London.