Beginning on 5 June 2023, Nancy Yao will serve as the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum’s inaugural director. Yao brings to the position more than 25 years of management expertise with companies and mission-driven projects.
Congress created the new museum in December 2020. The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum will foster an understanding of the achievements made by women over the course of American history, and how they have shaped the nation.
Yao will lead the creation and growth of a museum for the twenty-first century, including gathering a national collection, curating exhibitions, and developing educational materials that may be accessed online before the actual museum is constructed in Washington, D.C. The museum currently employs 14 people and has a $2 million federal budget; it has raised more than $55 million.
An experienced museum leader
Previously, Yao was appointed as president of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in 2015. MOCA, which is based in New York City, offers a forum for open conversation and engaging programming in addition to telling nuanced and unexpected stories.
As president, Yao oversaw a successful sustainability and conservation campaign that saved over 98% of MOCA’s collection—the biggest collection of Chinese American artefacts and objects in the nation—after a five-alarm fire broke out in the museum’s research area.
After the fire, Yao led the team to launch “MOCA on the Road,” a programme to broaden the museum’s collection efforts nationally. The programme visited over ten American cities in order to gather objects, form alliances, and share resources and exhibitions.
Through cooperation with foundations; local, state and federal organisations; and gifts from private individuals, MOCA generated nearly $60 million to acquire a permanent location for the museum in New York City. In collaboration with Ralph Appelbaum Associates, artist and architect Maya Lin created the new MOCA. In 2020, MOCA was selected as one of America’s Cultural Treasures.
Celebrating women who changed the world
“For decades, people have waited for this opportunity to shine a brighter light on women both famous and unsung who profoundly changed the world,” says Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch. “Nancy’s proven experience, skill and leadership will be crucial in bringing to life the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum and enabling it to creatively tell a more robust and complete story about who we are as a nation.”
Yao brings with her a variety of leadership abilities from both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds. She gives lectures at Yale University’s David Geffen School of Theater on non-profit organisation governance. She is the Tessitura Network‘s board secretary and a member of the McGraw-Hill equity advisory board, served as co-chair of the 150th anniversary of women at Yale University (which was cancelled as a result of the pandemic) and served as chair of the Women and Girls’ Fund in New Haven.
Yao has managed teams and projects at the Center for Financial Research and Analysis, the Yale-China Association, the Council on Foreign Relations, MOCA, and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Early in her career, she also worked for CNN International as an associate producer.
“I am humbled and elated to join the Smithsonian as the founding director of the American Women’s History Museum,” says Yao. “I look forward to partnering with colleagues to leverage the Smithsonian’s magnificent portfolio of museums, educational resources and research—and its incomparable collections. Museums play a critical role at the nexus of scholarship and public access.
“Creating voice for the stories of American women will take intentional conversations, creative inputs and energetic curation. I am indebted to Lonnie Bunch, Kevin Gover and the Smithsonian leadership, the advisory council of the museum, and interim director Lisa Sasaki and the museum team for all that they have accomplished to date.”
Museum has online presence
Since the museum was established in 2020, the Smithsonian has named a 25-member advisory council and has identified two possible sites for the museum, pending congressional approval. It already has an online presence.
Lisa Sasaki, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, has served as interim director since March 2021.
“We are indebted and grateful to Lisa Sasaki for her leadership as interim director,” Bunch adds. “She has ensured the future success of the museum by implementing the necessary building blocks to begin the process of creating a world-class museum.”
