About Us

Kris Morrissey, Ph.D., Director
Prior to her appointment as Director in September of 2007, Kris Morrissey was the Curator of Interpretation at the Michigan State University Museum and Director of the MSU Museum Studies Program. She is the editor of the journal Museums & Social Issues, A Journal of Reflective Discourse published by Left Coast Press, Inc. She has over 20 years experience working in museums and has taught university courses on a range of subjects, including informal learning, interpretation, new technologies, research and evaluation.

Morrissey is interested in the ways museums engage, educate, listen to, and change individuals, families, communities and society. She is currently working on a national project to study ways knowledge is co-created online, the role of interaction in that creation, and the ways that shifting to a perspective of co-creating knowledge with the public affects an institution's practices and sense of identity.

Wilson O'Donnell, Associate Director
Wilson O'Donnell has been a part of the University of Washington's Museology Graduate Program since 2001, and presents several of the Museology core courses, including museum management and administration theory, strategic planning and community relations, exhibition development and the introduction to museum studies.

O'Donnell's career in museums spans nearly 30 years and includes work as curator, executive director and consultant. Outside of his teaching duties, he has served as a museum consultant providing expertise in planning, project management, exhibit development, collections management and conservation, and exhibit and artifact research services to museums and other non-profit institutions. His interest and research in the American decorative and folk arts, especially in the area of American furniture of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, resulted in his developing a number of popular lectures and classes.

Maya Procel, Program Administrator
Maya Procel is the Program Administrator for the Museology Program and a former student of the Program. She provides administrative support and guidance for students and faculty including newsletter and conference creation, hiring, course listings and a range of other activities. She is also the program liaison with the university's Educational Outreach unit, which provides continuing education through a range of programs, connecting the university with communities across the country.

Ron Chew, Community Scholar-in Residence and Visiting Lecturer
Ron Chew joined the Museology program in January of 2008 after retiring from his nationally recognized tenure as Director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle. During his tenure at the museum, Chew built a reputation for combining cutting-edge programs and exhibits with a locally oriented emphasis on social justice. He has organized numerous exhibits that favor a people or story centered approach.

Chew has won numerous regional and national awards for his ability to meld cultural identity, civic participation and museum programs into a new tool in the fight for social justice including The Ford Foundation's 2004 Leadership for a Changing World award. The American Association of Museums recognized him as one of the 100 most influential museum innovators over the past 100 years.

Museology Interdisciplinary Faculty Group

The Museology Interdisciplinary Faculty Group is primarily an advising faculty with governance, planning, and policy oversight responsibilities. It is comprised of sixteen University of Washington graduate faculty who are associated with the program through a collective interest, and whose collegial activity is widely dispersed over ten institutional units including the departments of Anthropology, Architecture, Art History, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, History, the College of Education; the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture; the Henry Art Gallery; and the University of Washington Libraries.

Jordanna Bailkin
Associate Professor, History and Women's Studies

Patricia Failing
Professor, Art History, School of Art

Bruce Hevly
Associate Professor, History
Director, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest

Miriam Kahn
Professor and Chair, Anthropology
Adjunct Curator, Pacific Ethnology, Burke Museum

James Kenagy
Professor, Zoology
Curator of Mammals, Burke Museum

Steven Kerr
Professor, Education

Peter Lape
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Curator of Archeology, Burke Museum

Gary L. Menges
Preservation Administrator, Allen Library

Galen Minah
Associate Professor, Architecture

Kristine Morrissey
Director, Museology Graduate Program

James Nason
Emeritus Professor, Anthropology
Emeritus Curator of Pacific & American Ethnology, Burke Museum
Emeritus Director, Museology Graduate Program

Elizabeth Nesbitt
Associate Professor, Earth and Space Sciences
Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology, Burke Museum

Wilson O'Donnell
Lecturer, Museology Graduate Program

Richard Olmstead
Professor, Biology
Curator of Botany, Burke Museum

Theodore W. Pietsch
Professor, Ichthyology
Curator of Fishes, Burke Museum

Bradley Portin
Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies

Julie Stein
Director, Burke Museum

Robin Wright
Professor, Art History, School of Art
Curator of Native American Art, Burke Museum

Shirley Yee
Associate Professor, Women Studies
Adjunct Associate Professor, History and American Ethnic Studies

Auxiliary Faculty Group

The Auxiliary Faculty Group is primarily a teaching faculty drawn from a pool of working museum professionals from the Seattle area possessing many years of experience and expertise in all facets of museum operations.

Richard Andrews
Director, Henry Art Gallery

Nicolette Bromberg
Visual Materials Curator, Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries

Michelle Bufano
Executive Director, Pratt Fine Arts Center

Ron Chew
Ron Chew Communications
Former Director, Wing Luke Asian Museum

Miriam Clavir
Research Fellow and Former Senior Researcher, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Wendy Doyon
Research Coordinator, Museology Graduate Program

Robin Held
Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Frye Art Museum

Barbara Johns
Curator and Museum Consultant

Paula Johnson
Principal/Curation and Museum Specialist, Paragon Research Associates

Rina Luzius
Assistant Collections Manager, Rights and Reproductions Manager, Ethnology, Burke Museum

Erica Maniez
Director, Issaquah History Museum

Seth Margolis
Director of Education Programs, The Museum of Flight

Tamara A Moats
Curator of Education, Henry Art Gallery

Megon Noble
Assistant Archeology Collections Manager, Burke Museum

Laura Phillips
Archeology Collections Manager, Burke Museum

Kolya Rice
Art Historian

Judy Sourakli
Curator of Collections, Henry Art Gallery

Erica Varga
Museum Consultant, Poulsbo Historical Society