Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Adds Trustees to Growing Leadership Team

Museum also Welcomes new Director of Curatorial Affairs, Director of Learning and Engagement and Chief of Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–August 28, 2024 (Santa Fe, NM)–The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has welcomed new members to its Board of Trustees and several new staff into leadership positions over the past year. The leadership positions are part of an expanded Museum Leadership team which now includes the Director of Curatorial Affairs, Director of Learning and Engagement, and a Chief of Staff.

“We are adding incredible talent and depth of knowledge to the O’Keeffe,” Director Cody Hartley said. “As we prepare for future growth, we’ve strengthened the Museum’s leadership team with more voices from across our departments. The experience of these new Trustees and staff will be invaluable as we move forward with a new building, new projects, and new ideas.”

New Members of the Board of Trustees

Cira Crowell returns to the board of trustees after previously serving from 2008-2015. Crowell is a Los Angeles and Santa Fe-based fine art photographer, artist, and founder of InLightWorks Productions. The first film for which she was an executive producer, Dream Mountain, won “Best Mountain Film” at the London Mountain Film Festival, reaching international audiences through 25 top-tier film festivals including the esteemed Banff Mountain Film World Tour. She earned her master of arts degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, teaches Advanced Black and White Photography annually at Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, and her work has been exhibited worldwide.

Anne G. Fredericks is an artist, art historian, and architectural historian who resides in Massachusetts and Manhattan. Her artwork can be found in collections overseas and throughout the nation, including in the White House Collection. Fredericks also designs furnishings and objects for her interior design firm, Mermaid Design LLC. Her background includes a degree in art history that included a year’s study in Paris, and research in architectural history that resulted in journal articles currently listed in the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals of Columbia University’s Avery Library. Fredericks was one of the first women on Wall Street, rising through the ranks to lead international-equity sales departments at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and trading in markets across the globe.

Paul Horvath is CEO and co-founder of Orchard Global, an alternative asset manager providing transformational capital solutions to banks, asset managers, borrowers, and investors. Horvath is also a Trustee of the Washington National Cathedral and is an advisor and board member of many other national organizations, including the President’s Council of the National Constitution Center, the Munich Security Conference, the Johns Hopkins Physics and Astronomy Advisory Council, and the Hungarian American Institute. He attended Harvard Business School, Georgetown University, and Albuquerque Academy.

Dr. Kevin Kirby is the Executive Vice President at Ancora, a mission-driven developer and operator of innovation places for universities. Prior to joining Ancora, Dr. Kirby held Chief Operating Officer roles at Rice University, Columbia University Medical Center, and the National Institutes of Health. Earlier in his professional career, he conducted research, held research policy positions, and general management positions at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Kirby holds degrees from Syracuse University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, George Mason University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. D. Veena Parboteeah currently serves as Dean of the School of Business, Media, and Technology at New Mexico Highlands University, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Dr. Parboteeah joined Highlands in 2020 from Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU), where she had been a tenured Business-faculty member and, beginning in 2017, Assistant Dean of the College of Business. She completed a fellowship in curriculum and program development at ENMU, and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Advising during the 2014–15 academic year. In 2005, Dr. Parboteeah earned her Ph.D. in Business Administration with an emphasis in management information systems from Washington State University.

Ramona Sakiestewa returns to the Board of Trustees after previously serving from 2013 to 2021. Born and raised in the southwest, Sakiestewa is a self-taught weaver, artist, designer, and arts advocate. As a designer, she consults with architects to create appropriate design elements for the interior and exterior of buildings, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. She is a past chair of the New Mexico State Arts Commission, and a former member of the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission. In 2006, Sakiestewa was awarded the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and was inducted into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame.

Elisa Stude Pye is a native Houstonian who holds a BA in Art from the College of Wooster, in Ohio. Her extensive service includes the boards of the Brown Foundation, the Houston Ballet Foundation, and the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, and she currently serves as President of the Board of Trustees of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. She also serves on the capital campaign cabinet and endowment committee of the Kinkaid School in the Houston area. Stude Pye’s volunteer service includes the National Charity League; the Houston Botanic Garden; the Menil Collection; the Rienzi Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Orange Show; the Center for Hearing and Speech Foundation; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Margo Thoma is an Illinois native with New Mexico roots. She arrived in Santa Fe in 2006 after receiving her bachelor of arts in Art History from Stanford University. She cofounded the contemporary art gallery Eight Modern in 2007, and in 2014 she acquired TAI Gallery, a well-established Santa Fe art space dedicated to exhibiting Japanese bamboo art. She merged the two galleries into a single business, TAI Modern. She currently serves on the Museum of New Mexico Foundation Board of Directors and formerly served in the roles of vice-chair and treasurer for the Center of Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe.

New Staff Members

Angie Chandler, a creative strategist from Brooklyn, New York, has joined the Museum as its new Director of Learning and Engagement. A first-generation American of Caribbean and Afro-Latinx heritage, Chandler earned her bachelor of arts in Education and History from Brooklyn College before finding her passion for arts education, advocacy, and equity in her years as a classroom educator. She has led educational initiatives and cultivated community engagement at several institutions, including the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture and the McColl Center, both in Charlotte, North Carolina; the San Diego Museum of Art; and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture. At the Museum, Chandler will lead the team that produces education and arts classes for adults and youth, the Art to G.O. mobile art truck, and the museum’s signature summer program for middle-school youth, Art & Leadership.

Micaela Hester returns to the Museum as Chief of Staff, where she will take the lead on streamlining organizational processes and communication as well as internal efforts for the New O’Keeffe. Hester previously worked in the Museum’s Advancement and Communication Department and has a professional background in communications and management. Her work experience includes positions with major institutions including the National Park Service, the State of New Mexico, ITV, the BBC, Brown University, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. She holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Northwestern University and Birmingham City University in the UK, and received her MBA from Oklahoma State University, where she focused on organizational theory and behavior. As Chief of Staff, Hester will support effective communication across the organization and provide leadership on key initiatives, including coordinating internal and external parties for the construction of the New O’Keeffe. Born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and raised in New Jersey, Micaela also spent considerable time in Chicago—but she is happy to have made her home in Santa Fe.

Laura Wertheim Joseph was named Director of Curatorial Affairs of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. In her role, Joseph will provide strategic intellectual leadership for the Museum’s collections, exhibitions, and research initiatives. This includes taking the helm on the reinstallation and artistic direction of the Museum’s collection in the dramatically expanded New O’Keeffe, which is currently under construction. She will oversee all collections management, conservation, digital experience, research, and curatorial efforts at the Museum as part of her role.

Previously, Joseph was the Curator and Director of Exhibitions at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. She served in the role since 2019, developing exhibitions that received local, national, and international acclaim. At “The M,” she led an organizational shift to a collaborative curatorial model based on cultivating and sustaining relationships within communities the museum served. The exhibitions she curated often featured artists of underrepresented backgrounds including BIPOC and Latino/a/x artist, incarcerated artists, and artists with disabilities. She has also served as the Gallery Director at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, working to advance recognition and opportunities for artists challenging perceptions of disability.

Joseph was born in New Mexico and earned a bachelor of arts from Macalester College, a master of arts from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and a doctor of philosophy degree in Art History from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

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For media inquiries, contact:

Renee Lucero | Public Relations Manager 505-946-1063 rlucero@gokm.org

ABOUT THE GEORGIA O’KEEFFE MUSEUM: Since 1997, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum celebrates the art, life, and independent spirit of Georgia O’Keeffe. Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Georgia O’Keeffe lived the final decades of her life, the O’Keeffe has sites and experiences in two historic destinations, Santa Fe and Abiquiú. For more information, please visit  gokm.org.