We’re Museums Alaska

A guiding force in Alaska’s cultural landscape — strengthening museums and cultural centers as they preserve and celebrate our state’s rich heritage.

Our ValUES

Our guiding values

Resourcefulness

We tackle challenges with innovation and determination.

Sharing

We believe in the power of transparency, community networks, and collaboration to create stronger, more connected museums and cultural centers.

Innovation

We strive to continually evolve and improve our services to the field.

Inclusivity

To us, success is only found when we welcome all voices, perspectives, and backgrounds.

Community

We’re here to unite professionals, enthusiasts, and institutions to create a robust cultural network.

Our Mission

Our mission is to strengthen museums and cultural centers across Alaska while enhancing public understanding of their value.

Our History

Museums Alaska's journey began in the late 1970s as a committee of the Alaska Historical Society. We officially became a non-profit organization in 1983. 

For over four decades, our commitment to strengthening museums and cultural centers in Alaska has grown, propelling us into a new era of growth and impact.

Our Staff

Meet the powerhouse behind Museums Alaska.

Our dedicated staff bring unique skills and commitment to every aspect of our organization, ensuring Museums Alaska remains a beacon of cultural preservation.

Dixie Clough

Director
Museums Alaska

April 2021: Museums Alaska is excited to announce that it has hired Dixie Clough as its new Director. Dixie will serve as the Lead Administrator of Museums Alaska responsible for managing Museums Alaska’s substantial grant program, overseeing the organization’s programming and communications, and supporting advocacy efforts. Clough holds an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University and has more than ten years of experience in both arts administration and museum practice. Her resume includes previous appointments with the American Alliance of Museums, the MuseWeb Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution. Her most recent position was the Director of Communications and Development for the Bay Arts Alliance in Panama City, Florida an organization that supports, develops, and promotes the arts as essential community resources. She enjoys traveling, writing, and blogging.

Our Board

Meet the guardians of Alaska's cultural legacy!

Our board members are elected by the statewide membership and are passionate guardians of Alaska’s cultural legacy. Serving three-year terms, they contribute diverse expertise to guide the vision and policies of Museums Alaska. 

Christine Carpenter

President
Designer and Program Manager
ExhibitAK

Christine Carpenter is passionate about museums. As a designer, artist, and project manager, Christine uses her skills to work collaboratively with museums to find opportunities and limit challenges. After completing her MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning & Design, she relocated to Juneau to work with ExhibitAK, an exhibit design firm. She still works with ExhibitAK while also maintaining her own company, Liaise Studio: a planning, design, and art firm. Christine uses design and art as a tool to communicate, distill, and better understand the world around us. In collaboration with the communities she serves, she has designed exhibits, websites, interpretive panels, and master plans all over the state. After more than 10 years of working with museums across Alaska, Christine is in a unique position to serve on the Museums Alaska board: she understands the broad needs and opportunities facing Alaskan museums. She would be honored to continue to support museums in this new capacity.

Cindi Lagoudakis

Vice President
Former Executive Director
Clausen Memorial Museum

Cindi’s focus on arts and culture, tourism and economic development, and philanthropy have led to travels throughout Alaska for work and pleasure. She has served as board member and presenter for the Petersburg Arts Council, founding member and first Chair of the Petersburg Community Foundation, past board member and then Director of the Clausen Memorial Museum, was a member of the Alaska Folk Festival board, and as a board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Alaska, helping foster connections to our communities, their inhabitants and their stories. Cindi shares her love of the arts across miles, with young and old alike. As a mixed media artist with a special interest in printmaking, she has curated and participated in group and solo exhibitions from Ketchikan to Fairbanks, most recently serving an instructor for Artfest 2023 in Yakutat. Her artwork and photography appears in various Alaskan publications, collections, websites and installations.

Ashley Bivin

Secretary
Museum Director
Cordova Historical Museum

Ashley Bivin is the Museum Director with the Cordova Historical Museum. As a young museum professional herself, she is passionate about helping other emerging museum professionals (EMPS) in Alaska excel in this field. Since September of 2021, she has been working with Museums Alaska to host monthly Alaska EMP Meet and Skill Shares. She has a variety of experience in museum and archive collection management working with organizations such as the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Sinclair Research Center, Saint Louis Science Center, and the Madison County History Museum & Archive. She also spent 2 years working in museum education with the Bettendorf Family Museum and the Butterworth Center & Deere-Wiman House. Ashley has a B.S. in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a M.A. in Museum Studies from Western Illinois University- Quad Cities. She spends her free time exploring Cordova and relaxing with her 2 cats.

 

Heather Pennington

Treasurer
Refinery Accounting Manager
Marathon Petroleum Corporation

Heather Pennington is the Refinery Accounting Manager for the Marathon Refinery in Kenai. Originally from Ohio, Heather recently transferred to Alaska with her husband, Emmett, son Myles and 3 dogs in January 2024. Heather has been a regular advocate for museums, having participated in Museum Advocacy Day hosted by the American Alliance of Museums for 3 years. She’s previously held positions on the Massillon Museum board including Chairwoman and Treasurer over the course of 8 years with the board. Heather has also held board positions with the Canton Ballet and Child, Adolescent Behavioral Health, and the Soroptimist International of the Americans Canton, Ohio Club and Anchorage, Alaska Club. Heather holds a bachelor’s degree in Managerial and Financial Accounting from the University of Findlay and an MBA from Walsh University. Heather currently lives in Kenai with her family and dogs; and is passionate about art, history, and new experiences.

Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi, PhD

Director
Independent Curator and Author

Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi is an art historian and museum consultant based in Homer, Alaska. She currently serves as a program director for the Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Art & Culture program at The CIRI Foundation. A Ninilchik Tribal member, Nadia is passionate about increasing opportunities for Alaska Native involvement in museum work and correcting information in museum records. She also loves visiting historical collections of Alaska Native art and helping to connect collections with community. Nadia has a PhD in art history from the University of Washington.

Bethany Buckingham Follett

Director
Curator
Wasilla Museum & Visitor Center

Bethany Buckingham Follett was introduced to Museums Alaska in 2006 while interning at the Juneau Douglas City Museum. She has been an institutional and individual member since and has learned a lot from other members of Museums Alaska. Bethany is currently the curator for the Wasilla Museum and Visitor Center and has been in her current position for 12 years. These are exciting for museums and there is so much to work toward. Bethany likes to discuss projects and activities with other museum members and find different ways of looking at issues for a new solution. She grew up as a military brat and has lived in the lower 48 and overseas in Hong Kong and Turkey. Bethany currently lives in Big Lake, AK with her husband, Lynn, house dogs, Tikanni and Iorek house cat, Heihei and 8 sled dogs.

Lauren Johnson

Director
President and Executive Director
Chugach Heritage Foundation

Lauren Johnson serves as the President and Executive Director of the Chugach Heritage Foundation (CHF), the non-profit arm of Chugach, and the President and Interim Executive Director of the Chugach Heritage Museum & Archaeological Repository.

Johnson graduated from University of Alaska Anchorage in 2016 with a Bachelor of Business Administration Management. She then went on to complete Alaska Pacific University’s Alaska Native Executive Leadership Program (ANELP), and in 2019, she graduated with a Master of Business Administration.

Today as President and Executive Director, she manages the $33 million plus CHF educational endowment and oversees an organization that has awarded nearly $11 million in scholarships to Chugach shareholders and lineal descendants. In total, this represents more than 4,300 individuals who have received education funding assistance to pursue their academic and vocational dreams. Johnson has further supported education and mentorship for our shareholders and descendants through the establishment of the Chugach Connections Forum and the Chugach Native Professionals group.

In addition to CHF’s regular operations and the annual educational assistance that Johnson manages, she still oversees all of the work that makes Nuuciq Spirit Camp happen every year, orchestrating the many arrangements that bring people together from throughout the Chugach region for two-weeks of Sugt’stun language and dance classes, subsistence education, arts and craft, and other cultural related activities. Her duties also include hosting Chugach’s annual Russian New Year celebration and an array of culture workshops that take place throughout the year, each serving to keep the Chugach culture alive and vibrant.

Beyond Chugach, Johnson sits on the board of directors for the Alaska Native Heritage Center and Co-Chairs the ANCSA Educational Consortium. Without question, she has risen through the ranks of Chugach to become a shining star of the Chugach region.

Allison Stacy

Director
Curator of Collections & Exhibits
Seward Museum

Allison Stacy is a jack of all trades. She began at George Washington’s Mount Vernon as a program manager. Introduced to historic preservation, her passion for archaeology grew, leading to fieldwork and specializing in Section 106 compliance. As a strong advocate for ethical practice in cultural heritage management, she became an Investigative Analyst for the Manhattan Antiquities Trafficking Unit. She oversaw provenance research and property law procedures, working on repatriation cases worldwide. Born in Fairbanks, she returned to Alaska as the Curator of Collections & Exhibits at the Seward Museum. Allison’s appointment to the Board would greatly benefit ongoing efforts to further develop ethical practices within Alaskan Museums. She envisions Museums Alaska becoming one of the leaders in ethical museum practice nationwide. Her collaborative approach ensures that all stakeholders, from the directors to volunteers, are considered when developing policy and practice.

Benjamin Jacuk

Director
Director of Indigenous Research
Alaska Native Heritage Center

Benjamin is a Dena’ina and Sugpiaq who is serving as the Director of Indigenous Research at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Benjamin has worked within the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues/INTERPOL towards the repatriation and rematriation of the material culture of Indigenous peoples across the world. He is currently studying the history and impacts of the boarding schools within Alaska, working with such entities such like: Department of Interior, US Senate, various AK Native Tribes, Museums Alaska etc. He also helps create and maintain materials for the Alaska Native Heritage Center’s Museum. Recently, Benjamin has been instrumental in the return of significant material culture to Alaska from ecclesial repositories taken during the boarding school era that are either endangered artforms or thought to have been extinct. Benjamin’s work with Museums Alaska has been significant to telling this part of Alaska Native history and the return of culture to the communities it was taken from. Benjamin has two master’s degrees from Princeton and has done extensive work within the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Society in the linguistics and interpretation of Ancient Near-Eastern manuscripts/material culture. It would be his honor to join the board of directors for Museums Alaska to continue to help tell the stories of the original peoples and to help the next generation thrive.

Join Our Board

Our all-volunteer Board of Directors guides the organization. Joining the Board offers a unique opportunity to partner with colleagues, develop leadership skills, and make a meaningful impact.

Interested in Board service? Museums Alaska is always seeking fresh perspectives to diversify board voices and drive positive change. If you’re passionate about Alaska's cultural heritage, consider joining us!

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