Our new board term starts on November 1, and we are looking forward to continuing to work with our three incumbent board members who were re-elected this year: Christine Carpenter, Heather Pennington, and Ashley Bivin.
Thank you to everyone on the ballot and to all our voting members!
Christine Carpenter
Christine Carpenter is passionate about museums. As a designer, artist, and project manager, Christine works collaboratively with museums to capture opportunities and address challenges. After earning her MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning & Design, she moved to Juneau to join ExhibitAK, where she continues to design alongside running her own creative practice, Liaise Studio.
Christine uses design and art to communicate, distill, and connect. Working closely with communities, she has developed exhibits, websites, interpretive panels, and master plans statewide. A Museums Alaska board member since 2023 and Board President since 2025, Christine brings leadership and insight to the role. With 15 years of experience in collaborating with museums across Alaska, she understands the broad needs, challenges, and opportunities facing our state’s cultural community.
Heather Pennington
In the past 11 years Heather has served as board member, treasurer, and board chair for Massillon Museum, Arts in Stark, and Museums Alaska. As Museums Alaska’s Treasurer, Heather provides a wealth of knowledge and financial experience in budgeting, financial planning and review of financial performance from her position as Refinery Accounting Manager at Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
Heather has been and continues to be a strong advocate for museums of art and history; she believes that museums are the windows into the soul of many communities. The history and art of an area or time period are teaching tools for everyone who is interested in learning about the human experience in all its many varied forms. Heather is passionate about learning and experiencing the histories and art of the people in the communities where she lives and works.
Ashley Bivin
Ashley Bivin is the Museum and Library Director for the City of Cordova, where she oversees the operations of the Cordova Historical Museum and Cordova Public Library. She is passionate about supporting emerging museum professionals (EMPs) in Alaska and has partnered with Museums Alaska since September 2021 to facilitate Alaska EMP Meet & Skill Share and other programming.
Ashley has six years of experience in museum and archival collections management, two years in museum education, and four years in museum administration. She has also held positions on different museum and chamber of commerce boards where she learned more about board roles and nonprofit management. She holds a B.S. in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and an M.A. in Museum Studies from Western Illinois University–Quad Cities.
Outside of work, she enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons, going to the gym, finding new hiking areas to explore, and spending rainy days reading with her two cats.