Chair, Programs
Greta Brunschwyler 
Vice President of Audience Development

High Desert Museum

59800 South Highway 97

Bend ,Oregon 97702

541.323.3316

Secretary

Yvonne Sharpe

Interim Treasurer
Roger Lidman  

Director           

Pueblo Grande Museum          

4619 East Washington St.        

Phoenix, AZ 85034     

(602) 495-0901    

Communications Chair

Stacy Lieberman

Director of External Affairs

Skirball Cultural Center

2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd      

Los Angeles, CA     

(310) 440-4578          

Governance Chair

Bruce Eldredge          

Executive Director and CEO of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center

720 Sheridan Ave
Cody, WY 82414 307.587.4771

Cheryl Hinton
Executive Director
Barona Cultural Center & Museum	
1095 Barona Road
Lakeside, CA, 92040
(619) 443-7003	

Stacy Lieberman (Communications Committee Chair / Executive Committee)

Director of External Affairs, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California

.

Bruce Eldredge

Executive Director and CEO of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming.

Eldredge has served as a museum director for 30 years. In addition to his leadership roles at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, and The Hubbard Museum, Eldredge has served as director for the Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas; Portsmouth Museums, Portsmouth Virginia; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Muskegon Museum of Art, Michigan, and the Frederic Remington Art Museum, Odgensburg, New York. He is currently an Accreditation Visiting Committee team member and a MAPI and MAP Governance reviewer.  He serves as a board member of the Western Association of Museums and has served on their Annual Meeting Program Committee, which he co-chaired in 2004.  His community and volunteer activities are numerous and currently include service as an Executive Committee member and board member of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.  In 2005, Eldredge was elected to the Board of Trustees of Group Health Cooperative (GHC), a 2.2 Billion Dollar healthcare provider and insurer representing 550,000 members.  He serves on GHC’s Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, Nominating Committee and Development Committee.  Bruce earned his  Bachelor of Arts in American History & Geography from Ohio Wesleyan University, his  Master of Art in Museum Administration from Texas Tech University, and is a graduate of the  Museum Management Institute (now Museum Leadership Institute) sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Foundation – 2003.
 

Lisa Anderson
CEO, Mesa Historical Museum, Mesa, Arizona.
 

Midge Bowman

Executive Director, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington 

Midge Bowman is currently the Director of the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington.  Prior to that she was a principal at Bowman-Edwards and Associates, a consulting firm to non-profit organizations in fund-raising, strategic planning, board development, and institutional assessment.  She holds degrees from Pomona College and Yale University and has done doctoral work at the Fielding Institute.   She has been Head of three schools: Bush School in Seattle, Westridge School in Pasadena, CA, and Garrison Forest School near Baltimore MD. Ms. Bowman’s writings have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Puget Soundings, USA Today, and numerous non-profit newsletters.  Former trustee of Pomona College and President Emerita of the National Coalition of Girls' Schools, she has been a National Operational Volunteer for the Girl Scouts, and currently serves on the boards of The Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education, Western Museum Association, and St. Mark’s Foundation.

Joe Brennan
Operations Manager, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California.

"We must learn from the mistakes of others, life is too short to make them all ourselves!"

Independent, Los Angeles, California.

Ted Greenberg has been active in the museum field for over thirty years. Being the first paid professional registrar at the Magnes Museum in Berkeley, CA, he oversaw the first expansion of that facility. During that time, Ted was a student at JFK University, where he eventually graduated in 1980 with a Masters in museum Studies. Ted eventually worked at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco from 1984-1999, holding the position of Senior Registrar. In 1999, Ted left to work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until November of 2006 as head of the Registrar's office. Ted has also taught for many years at JFK University, where upon his departure, an award was established in his name to honor the outstanding students in their studies of Collections Management issues and trends. Ted has been active for many years in WMA as a presenter and in 2001 was co-program chair for the annual meeting in Pasadena. That same year, Ted received the Director's Chair from WMA. Ted is also active in the Registrar's Committee-Western Region and Registrar's Committee-AAM.  Surprisingly, this is the first time that Ted has been elected to the board (he was automatically placed on the board as RC-WR chair last year), even though many people have thought that he has previously served on the board.

"WMA is a great organization!!  The people care for the profession and the betterment of their institutions. When we all come together at the annual meeting, the dedication of the all the members is apparent by their participation in providing quality panels, ongoing discussions and wanting to also have fun and great time.  With the board reorganization, the hopes of an even better WMA can only be achieved with great leadership and all member's support."

Executive Director, Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, Palm Springs, California

Michael Hammond feels like he has been in the museum field his entire life as museums have always been a major part of his life. He is trained as an archaeologist and has participated and supervised excavations in England, Lebanon, Israel, Greece and the United States. More recently he has served as the director of Historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC, the executive director of The Museum at Warm Springs and is currently the executive director of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs. He has served as the vice-president of the North Carolina Museums Council and served on the council of the American Association for State and Local History. He has been an IMLS reviewer, served on several NEH review panels and served on the faculty of the Seminar for Historic Administration. Michael served as the program co-chair for the 2001 WMA annual meeting in Palm Springs and has served on several program meetings since then. He was the 1998 recipient of the WMA Director's Chair Award.

“I attended my first WMA meeting two months after moving west and realized immediately that it was truly a dedicated professional organization. More importantly, it places service to its individual members and organizations at the top of the list. I would to continue that emphasis and help achieve even higher levels.”

Cheryl Hinton
Executive Director, Barona Cultural Center & Museum, Lakeside, California,

Cheryl Hinton has been Director/Chief Curator of the Barona Cultural Center and Museum since 1999 and helped open the facility for the Barona Band of Mission Indians. She received her MA in Anthropology from San Diego State University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, American Anthropological Association, the American Association of Museums, and the Western Museums Association. She served on the WMA Program Committee in 2005 and is an IMLS Peer Reviewer. In 2007, Cheryl was named Woman of the Year in Art and Culture by the San Diego/ East County Chamber of Commerce Women in Leadership Program. Her former museum experiences include Museum Anthropologist at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, first Curator of the Agua Caliente Tribal Museum in Palm Springs and Southwest Curator at the San Diego Museum of Man. As adjunct faculty at University of San Diego and Grossmont College in Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies, Cheryl specializes in Southern California Indians, from archaeology to contemporary culture; American Indian stereotypes; and repatriation (NAGPRA). (Her publications also appear under the name Cheryl Sanders Jeffrey). She and folk musician Jim Hinton, their five children, two grandchildren and two dogs live in La Mesa California. Whenever possible, they camp along the California coast or in the desert Southwest--in between wildfires.

"It is an honor to serve the WMA as a Board Member. As the tribal museum representative for the sovereign nation of the Barona Band of Mission Indians, we welcome a growing WMA partnership that facilitates diversity and cultural understanding among our audiences. Personally, I look forward to working more closely with the warm, supportive group of Museum professionals that comprise the WMA."

Aldona Jonaitis

Director, University of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks, Alaska

Art historian Aldona Jonaitis studies Northwest Coast Native art.  She has published several books on aspects of the art, including From the Land of the Totem Poles: Northwest Coast Art at the American Museum of Natural History (1988), Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch  (1991), The Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine  (1999), and Art of the Northwest Coast (2006).  She was on the faculty and served as an administrator at the State University at Stony Brook from 1975-1989, then became Vice President for Public Programs at the American Museum of Natural History where she stayed for four years. Currently she serves as Director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks.  She has served on the board of the American Association of Museums, and is currently on the boards of the National Science Collections Alliance and AAM-ICOM as well as WMA.  Aldona lives happily in Fairbanks, Alaska with two horses, three dogs and one cat, and bakes fancy cakes for relaxation. 

“WMA is a wonderful organization, both for experienced and relatively new museum professionals.  I urge all my staff to attend meetings, become involved in the organization, and propose papers.  Everyone who does so returns to Fairbanks inspired with new and exciting ideas.”

Sarah Kennington

Registrar, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, California

Sarah Kennington has served as the chief registrar for the Fowler Museum at UCLA since 1982. She is responsible for oversight of registration components in the management of the collections, including loans and traveling exhibitions. Professional service has included positions on the executive boards of the Western Museums Association, the California Association of Museums, ArtTable, and the Registrars Committee – Western Region; as well as the Advisory Committee of the Museum Loan Network and consultations with the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles and the California Association of Museums. Personal interests include gardening and explorations in California’s high desert. 

"It’s hard to imagine a more worthy association or having  more fun participating in the work of its board and committees. My enthusiasm and commitment are based on over fifteen years of experience and the accompanying professional and personal growth. Through the Western Museums Association I’ve acquired skills, honed my sense of ethics and confidence, and developed a network of  wonderful colleagues and friendships."

Roger Lidman  

Director, Pueblo Grande Museum, Phoenix, Arizona

Roger has been the Director of Pueblo Grande Museum since 1990.  Under Roger’s leadership the museum has received numerous awards and was accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1999. In 2006 Pueblo Grande Museum received the Award of Excellence from the Museum Association of Arizona.  He received his degree in anthropology from Arizona State University.  Roger is also currently the Chair of the Arizona Humanities Council. He is a past president of the Central Arizona Museum Association as well as the Museum Association of Arizona. He has also served as chair of Arizona's Archaeology Advisory Commission.  He received the Museum Association of Arizona’s Outstanding Personal Service Award in 1998 and the Outstanding Leadership and Service award from the Central Arizona Museum Association in 2002.  He has served as a peer reviewer for the American Association of Museum’s Accreditation and Museum Assessment programs, as well as a field reviewer and panelist for the Institute for Museum and Library Services. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to attend many museum conferences during my career, and the WMA annual meeting always stands out as consistently the best.  The WMA is recognized nationally as one of the leading regional museum associations, and I’d honored to be able to serve the WMA membership in my role as a board member.”

Mike Nelson   

Manager, Anasazi State Park,  Boulder, Utah

Mike has for the past six years managed the Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder, Utah. Prior to that he managed Edge of the Cedars Museum, and prior to that the Utah Field House of Natural History. He served for several years on the Board of Directors for the Utah Museums Association. Mike finished an undergraduate in Philosophy from Utah State University, and a masters in Archaeology and Parks Management from the University of Utah. He just finished building his own house (literally). He claims he has a good life because he can ride his horse to work, though parking can sometimes be a challenge.

Jody Ochoa     

Museum Director, Idaho Historical Museum, Boise, Idaho 

Jody is currently the Museum Administrator for the Idaho State Historical Museum in Boise.  She has been working in the museum field since the early 1980s and has been interested in museums since she was a child and first saw the two-headed calf when her mom worked at ISHM as a docent. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Museology from the University of Idaho.  She has served on the board of the Idaho Association of Museums for over 20 years.  She is also member and officer of the Boise Museum Association. Jody joined the RC-WR in 1983 and later served as an Idaho Representative and officer of the group. She served on the WMA 2004 & 2005 Program Committees and was a Co-Chair for the 2006 WMA Host Committee for the Annual Meeting in Boise. Jody is married and the mother of two great children who keep her very busy. When she has time she enjoys working in her garden, beading and skiing.

"When I joined the RC-WR in the early 80s I was introduced to an incredible educational resource and invaluable system of networking and professional camaraderie. It is exciting to have such an opportunity again and I am honored to join the board of the WMA. I have also worked with the small grassroots museum community for most of my career and hold these needs close to my heart.  I hope to not only give something back to WMA for many years of wonderful support but also to add a voice from the small museum community as well."