M. Susan Barger, PhD, the director of Museum Development Associates, is an internationally recognized conservation educator and scientist. She has worked to improve small museums for over fifteen years. In 2001, she became the manager of the Small Museum Development Project, a federally funded program for the support of small museums in New Mexico, cosponsored by the Museum of New Mexico and the New Mexico Association of Museums. The program ran out of money in 2004 and, in 2005, Dr. Barger and Barbara Hagood cofounded Museum Development Associates in order to continue providing services to New Mexico's small museums. She became the director of MDA in January 2008.

Donna Every is our part-time administrator. She has worked for over ten years in administrative support for small businesses and private clients, as well as for Wells Fargo Bank. She also has a background as an assistant teacher in public-school special education, and currently works at El Dorado Community School in Santa Fe.

Julie Baird (Museum Management), served as Director of the Farmington Museum for ten years expanding the museum from one 10,000 sq. ft. facility with a staff of three and annual visitation of 14,000 to a museum system consisting of four facilities, totaling over 40,000 sq. ft. and five miles of interpretive trails, with a staff of thirteen, and annual visitation of 45,000.  Baird also served as Deputy Director of the Georgia Museum of Art for two years coordinating financial information for use by the director, curatorial staff and board members and managing daily operations.  She has served on the New Mexico Association of Museums board as secretary and president.  Julie received her Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies from George Washington University.

Joyce Cheney (Exhibits), working under the moniker Focus Communications, develops communication materials and strategies. She has collaborated with museums, Fortune 100 companies, community groups, schools and more to produce formal and informal learning materials for multimedia exhibitions, websites, classroom settings and publications. As a museum exhibit developer, Cheney provides concept development, research, writing, editing, image/artifact acquisition, visitor research, exhibition evaluation and project management. In addition to working on development teams for exhibitions on topics ranging from the physics of space travel to historic architecture to apes, she has curated three nationally touring exhibitions comprised of her private textiles collections.

Gail Hulslander, MBA (Museum Shops and Earned Income), has worked with museums regionally and nationally for over twenty years in the area of earned-revenue opportunities.  Trained by the Smithsonian Institution, she specializes in craft cooperatives. She will be working with MDA to improve small-museum shops with product-development, marketing and fundraising strategies.

Dena Hunt, (Contract Registrar, Genealogical Researcher, Museum and Legal Consultant), has over thirty years of experience working with museum collection records, genealogical records, museums, cultural centers and legal firms.  Trained at the University of Denver, Denver art Museum and the National Genealogical Society, Dena has initiated many projects dealing with family history, archival and museum methods for both public and private institutions.  Formerly the registrar at the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico, she has used her museum and administrative skills to found a successful Cultural Consultant Company that specialized in bringing museum methods to the private sector.  Dena has assisted several museums to come into compliance with the complicated NAGPRA laws, Migratory Bird Treaty Acts, and to develop policies for dealing with sacred and sensitive material and artifacts.  

Terry R. Reynolds, PhD (Museum Education), did informal educational and interpretative programming for children and adults for over thirty years and taught museum studies formally at the university level. She was a small museum curator and/or director for over a quarter of a century. Dr. Reynolds directed a museum studies program and was the chair of the Committee on Museum Professional Training for the American Association of Museums. She also has done market and social research. She recently retired.

Barbara Lucero Sand, MFA (former Board member, Collections Management), taught collections care and exhibition planning and design at Arizona State University (ASU) and as a faculty member in Museum Studies at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. A curator and curatorial team member, she has worked on major national and international exhibitions at the IAIA Museum, ASU Art Museum and the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum in Albuquerque. She will be working with MDA on several upcoming collections projects, online course development and workshops.

Linda Wiener, PhD (Pest Management), is an entomologist and has worked for more than thirty years on problems related to pest management in cultural collections. She is also a tutor at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM.

Charlene Porsild, PhD (Board Chair), is the Program Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico. A native of Canada's Yukon, she is a former history professor and Fulbright Scholar and author of several books, including "Gamblers and Dreamers: Men, Women, and Community in the Klondike" (University of British Columbia Press, 1998) and "From Alzada to Zoortman: Historic Place Names of Montana" (Montana Historical Society Press, 2009).

Luther “Lou” Robb (Board Treasurer) served as a faculty member and administrator for 40 years at Pennsylvania State University.  He was elected Township Supervisor for twelve years, and he has been active on several boards and authorities.  After retirement, he served 15 years as a volunteer fire fighter in Eldorado (Santa Fe, NM), and was a member of that fire department’s nonprofit 501.c.3 board.

Chuck Dailey (Board Secretary), founder of the IAIA Museum and archives, served as the museum director and curator for over 20 years.  Now an IAIA Professor Emeritus, he founded the Museum Studies program and taught museum studies courses until retirement, with a focus on museum history, administration, museum development, and exhibition planning and design.

Susan Hershberger (Board member) is a business consultant who has worked in marketing, retail management and business planning for over 25 years. A fairly recent resident of New Mexico, she is working with the Workforce Connection in Valencia County, is on the board of the Harvey House Museum in Belen, and is a professor at the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Business.

Ellen Lampert (Board member) is an artist, entrepreneur, linguist and community organizer. Ellen serves the Santa Fe Council on International Relations by developing global and intercultural contacts for New Mexico. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany and received her MA in Applied Community Change & Conservation, focusing on public health, sustainable agriculture, income generation and microfinance, leadership and communications, culture, and community building. She has expertise in grant writing and curriculum development.

Mary Anne Redding, MA (Board member), is a curator, archivist and arts administrator, and is the Curator of Photography at the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe. She has dual Master’s Degrees in Arts Administration and Information and Library Science, as well as advance studies in photography and art history.