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Board of Directors Class of 2024-2026
Andrea Harden Director of Human Resources, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Region: Western Andrea Harden, has more than twenty years of senior-level management and consulting experience in the areas of training and development, employee relations, harassment prevention, diversity and inclusion, change management, and effective communication. She is a key partner in supporting museum leadership, with a focus on employee engagement, relationship management, and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA). Harden is responsible for the development and administration of various plans and procedures that guide and support museum staff, including recruitment, retention, performance management, development, and compliance. Harden collaborates with the museum’s director and other staff to understand, refine, and implement the museum’s strategic plan. She works with the Buffalo AKG’s Leadership Team and Department Heads to ensure alignment of departmental and individual goals and objectives with the broader institutional plan, which includes coordinating IDEA processes, programs, and initiatives in collaboration with other Leadership Team members, ensuring the integration and measurability of IDEA in all aspects of museum operations alongside institutional goals, and making changes and updates as needed to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal employment laws and regulations and best practices for museums. |
Terry Alford On February 21, 2020, the Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor Commission (MSAAHCC) hired Terry Alford to serve as its full-time Executive Director beginning March 2, 2020. Mr. Alford is responsible for leading the effort to create a unified master plan that will maximize the opportunity of this unique destination that includes the Michigan Street Baptist Church, Nash House Museum, Colored Musicians Club, and WUFO Black History Collective among other important assets. Terry Alford is a seasoned senior manager/administrator with over 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience and is a results-oriented professional with expertise in management, marketing, public relations, and community capacity-building. Most recently, he served as the “Advancing Tobacco-Free Communities” Community Engagement Program Manager at Cicatelli Associates. Prior to that, he served in various leadership roles for 18 years at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, including as director of the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition where he oversaw a $2 million annual budget and managed the day-to-day operations of the coalition on behalf of the NYS Department of Health including marketing, promotions, public relations, and community engagement. He holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Medaille College with honors and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a minor concentration in Urban Planning from the State University College at Buffalo. |
Neal Hitch Dr. Neal V Hitch is a historian, preservation architect, and a museum specialist who has been working over 25 years developing historic sites and museums. Dr. Hitch has a specialty in building capacity, visitor engagement, and managing museums in crises. From 1997 until 2007, he worked for the Ohio Historical Society where he managed some of the Society’s premier restoration projects as Ohio celebrated its 200th anniversary. From 2007 to 2010, Dr. Hitch served as Director of the National Museum of the Turks and Caicos Islands, bringing the museum through the devastation of a direct hit from a category 5 hurricane. From 2011 to 2018, Dr. Hitch served as the Executive Director of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum, “the museum that never opened,” developing a funding plan, staff, and programs for a museum that had been under construction for 11 years. In 2016, he re-opened the Museum of the Aleutians after its closure in 2015. As the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives in Honolulu, Hawaii, he toured a Hawaiian cultural production throughout New England in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the museum in 1819. Currently, Dr. Hitch serves as the Senior Curator of the historic site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair and the Director of The Museum at Bethel Woods, where he established a five-year Oral History Initiative resulting in the development of a series of oral history pop ups across the United States.
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Sophie Lo Deputy Director, Museum at Eldridge Street Sophie brings over a decade of experience working between the intersections of arts and culture and education. Prior experiences include overseeing public programs and events at The Institute of Fine Arts at NYU and managing public programs and communications at the Museum of Chinese in America. She has freelanced for Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), consulted on diversity initiatives for young adult novels and children’s education materials at Scholastic Inc., and freelanced for Social Distance Powwow, a community space that grew out of COVID-19 to create a platform for cultural preservation and cultural knowledge through indigenous songs, dance, and art. Sophie was an Art Commissioner for Queens Council on the Arts from 2021-2022 and was among 16 participants selected for New York Foundation for the Arts Incubator for Executive Leaders of Color Program, an initiative aimed to foster equitability and diversity in the arts industry. She earned her B.A. in Culture and Media Studies from The New School, her M.S. in Human Capital Management and Organizational Effectiveness from NYU, and received a certificate for Managing Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace from Cornell University. |
Kaitlyn Falk Wong Kaitlyn Falk Wong is an experienced fundraiser dedicated to supporting institutional growth and fostering positive change. In her role as the Director of Institutional Funding and Assessment at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Kaitlyn leads a team that successfully raises nearly $2 million annually from foundations, corporations, and government entities. Through her storytelling abilities, relationship-building skills, and the development of compelling grant projects and partnerships, Kaitlyn has played a significant role in securing funds that contribute to the Garden's financial stability and institutional advancement. She is also actively involved in the Garden's Strategic Plan Steering Committee and All Access Task Force, where she contributes to shaping the organization's inclusive future. Kaitlyn's leadership extends beyond fundraising. She has collaborated on the creation of two important initiatives at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden: "Investing in Inclusion," a strategic plan that prioritizes diversity, equity, access, and inclusion, and "Expanding BBG's Welcome," an initiative focused on enhancing accessibility throughout the garden. These endeavors highlight Kaitlyn's commitment to promoting inclusivity and broadening participation within the organization. Before joining the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Kaitlyn held positions at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center, Inc., and worked as a consultant for various clients, including globalFEST, BackCountry Jazz, and Tamizdat, Inc. Her strategic planning and fundraising efforts for these organizations were instrumental in generating vital support, enabling program expansions, and advancing their respective missions. Kaitlyn earned an M.P.A. in Nonprofit Administration & Policy Analysis, specializing in Program Evaluation, from NYU Wagner. She also holds a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Music from SUNY Geneseo. |
Claire Kovacs Claire L. Kovacs is the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Binghamton University Art Museum. Kovacs obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Case Western Reserve University – all in art history. She has curated exhibitions at the Figge Art Museum, Coe College, and the Krasl Art Center, the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, and the Binghamton University Art Museum. Her strategies for programming and exhibitions emphasize the ways that academic museums explore contemporary issues, foster interdisciplinary inquiry, create space for a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, and function as a site of dynamic community engagement. She emphasizes intersectional equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion in collections, exhibitions, and programming. Her research practice grapples with ways that art historical research can support ‘The Common Good’ (to borrow a phrase from the NEH), using curatorial practice and writing as a mechanism by which to amplify under-told stories. She participated in the 2018 Getty Leadership Institute’s NextGen program, as well as the NEH/Newberry Library Summer Institute on Art and Public Culture in Chicago. She co-hosted The Gallery Gap, a WVIK podcast that examines in/equity in museum exhibitions, programs, and collections. Current research projects focus on the work of the SisterSerpents, a feminist collective active in Chicago (and beyond) between 1989-1998, and on the Young Lords in Chicago through a project that looks at a project where the Young Lords and other community groups teamed up to propose new low-income housing in the rapidly changing cityscape of Lincoln Park, Chicago in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She is committed to justice in the world in all its forms. |
Ted Johnson Ted Johnson is the President and owner of Hadley Exhibits in Buffalo NY. He has worked at Hadley on various exhibit projects for over 42 years. Some of these projects include: The JFK Presidential Library, The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, The US Capital Visitor Center, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Diker Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mr Johnson has worked in all facets of exhibit design and production during his tenure and continues today. Mr Johnson has worked with several non-for–profits over the years including: The Children’s Growth Foundation where he also served as Board President, The Buffalo and Erie County Library System where he also served as Board Chair and continues to serve as a Trustee today, he also is currently serving on the Buffalo Botanical Gardens Board of Directors. Some of the awards Mr Johnson has been honored with include: The David I Levy Award for outstanding achievement and service in the communications industry, 2018 C-level award winner for the management of his company in Western NY, he is also an inductee in the Buffalo Experience Hall of Fame and in 2018 he was named Sportsman of the Year for the Buffalo Harbor Sailing Club. |
Cliff Laube Cliff Laube is public programs and communications manager at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum – a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) – in Hyde Park, New York. A 23-year employee of the United States federal government, he is a dedicated manager and supervisor with diverse experience in the fields of public programming, public affairs and heritage tourism. He studied historic preservation and architectural design at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, and has worked for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) and the National Park Service (NPS). Cliff is most proud of his work promoting and developing programs for the presidential libraries-wide conference THE PRESIDENCY AND SUPREME COURT hosted at the Roosevelt Library (2007), and the Library’s groundbreaking exhibition on Japanese American Internment, IMAGES OF INTERNMENT (2017). He has received two NARA Archivist’s Awards for Achievement in public programs planning and website development. Cliff also manages visitor services operations and the rental of conference facilities at the Roosevelt Library’s Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center. He has managed volunteer programs at both Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton, CT (NPS) and at the Roosevelt Library. He sits on two Library committees, including the social media committee (founding member) and workplace culture committee (chair), and has helped develop and implement strategies to grow and maintain visitation to Dutchess County, New York historic sites as a board member of Dutchess Tourism, Inc. |
Melinda McTaggart Melinda McTaggart has a Master’s Degree in Education from SUNY Oneonta and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Studies from West Virginia University. During her career as an educator, Melinda has taught at all academic levels and in a variety of locations, including SUNY Oneonta, Job Corps, and for the New York State Department of Correctional Services. Able to combine her love of history and teaching, Melinda joined the Schoharie County Historical Society in 2017 as the Director of Educational Outreach to promote and develop programming for students and public throughout the region. In 2019 she became the Director and Business Manager for the society and head of Historic Properties Department for Schoharie County. She is an active board member for area organizations including the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley and Hero Fund America that was organized to support the education, training and equipment needs of first responders. |
Natalie Stetson Natalie Stetson is the executive director of the Erie Canal Museum in downtown Syracuse, NY. She was previously the director of development at the Seward House Museum in Auburn, NY, and the Erie Canal Museum. She has spent much of her career thinking about and finding ways to engage new audiences at history museums and connect museums to their community. Although not native to Central New York, she now calls it home and is energized by the revitalization of communities like Syracuse. Natalie received a BA at the Honors College of Florida Atlantic University with concentrations in American Studies and Literature. She later attended Syracuse University to receive an MA in Museum Studies. Natalie grew up in museums and, in fact, followed in the footsteps of her father, who received is MFA in Museum Studies (then called Museology) from Syracuse University 30 years before she attended. |
