Principal of Exhibition Associates, a firm that consults internationally with museums on exhibition and facilities development, new programs, and management. Over 35 years as a museum professional, Jim has facilitated major institutional changes. He has developed more than 350 exhibitions on the arts, sciences, and history. Prior to becoming a consultant, Jim was the former Associate Director for the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C., among other positions. He has served as a consultant to museums nationally in the development of exhibitions and programs and has worked with museum programs in Argentina, Canada, Germany, Guatemala, Jordan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Uruguay and Peru.

George Yúdice is Professor of Latin American Studies in the Department of Modern Languages ​​and Literatures at the University of Miami. He investigates arts, practices and cultural and creative industries: music, audiovisual and visual arts; with special interest in new aesthetic phenomena in the digital age. He is the author of El recurso de la cultura (Gedisa, 2002), Política Cultural (Gedisa, 2004), Nuevas tecnologías, música y experiencia (Gedisa, 2007), Culturas emergentes en el mundo hispano de Estados Unidos (Fundación Alternativas, 2009) and Políticas culturais para a diversidade: lacunas inquietantes (2016), among other titles. He has published more than 150 articles in indexed journals.

Chevy Humphrey has been President and CEO of Arizona Science Center since 2005 and is the first African-American to lead a Science Center in the United States. Acting as a turnaround executive, she optimized holistic, integrated change across all areas of operations that led her teams to deliver phenomenal profits, sustainable business growth and innovative, high-impact programs and services to the community.  She accelerated strategic growth, both financially and through high-impact science programming, of the now-200,000 square-foot facility. During her tenure, Humphrey has also grown the Center’s assets from $3M to more than $36M. Under her leadership, the Center has acquired two non-profits to maximize programming for the community. 

Before coming to Arizona Science Center, Humphrey held leadership positions at The Houston Symphony, University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, and The Phoenix Symphony. Humphrey has attended advanced management courses at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Yale University School of Management. Humphrey also received an honorary degree of Doctor of Science and Technology from the University of Advancing Technology.  She is pursuing her Doctorate of Business Administration at Grand Canyon University with an expected graduation date of December 2019. She has an MBA from Northeastern University, with specializations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship/Innovation.

In 2012, Humphrey was voted by peers as Chair of the Board of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), the first African-American to hold the post. Humphrey also serves as a board member and incoming Vice Chair of the American Alliance of Museums. In 2017, Humphrey received the Association of Science-Technology’s Chair’s Award for Service, the first time the award was given. She serves as board member for the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute. She is Treasurer for the University Public Schools, Inc. at Arizona State University and for the Downtown Phoenix Partnership. 

Lauren Benetua is an arts advocate and cultural worker in love with art for social change. She holds a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from the Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici (Florence, Italy) and a Bachelor’s Degree in History of Art and Visual Culture from UC Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA). Her professional background is rooted in community engagement and social justice. She currently serves as the Community Catalyst for the OF/BY/FOR ALL initiative, leading civic and cultural institutions around the globe to build inclusive and equitable futures for their communities.

Nina Simon is the Spacemaker/CEO of the OF/BY/FOR ALL movement, a global initiative to make civic and cultural organizations of, by, and for all people. OF/BY/FOR ALL provides tools, coaching, and community to help organizations become more relevant, inclusive, and resilient.

Prior to founding OF/BY/FOR ALL, Nina was the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, where she led a dramatic turnaround and growth rooted in community involvement. Nina is the best-selling author of The Participatory Museum (2010), The Art of Relevance (2016) and the popular Museum 2.0 blog. She has been called a “museum visionary” by Smithsonian Magazine, a Silicon Valley Business Journal “40 under 40,” and Santa Cruz County Woman of the Year for her innovative community leadership. Nina lives off the grid in the Santa Cruz mountains with 20 people, 24 chickens, 5 dogs, and 1 zipline.

Joan Weinstein is Director of the Getty Foundation. Since joining the Getty in 1994 she has directed grant initiatives internationally related to art history, conservation, and museum practice and was co-director of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980. Weinstein began her career teaching art history at the University of Pittsburgh and is the author of several books and numerous articles on modernist German art and culture. She holds a PhD in the History of Art from the University of California, Los Angeles and studied at the Phillips-Universität Marburg in Germany.

Selma Holo is the Executive Director of USC Museums (University of Southern California). At present that includes the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the USC Pacific Asia Museum, and the Hancock Memorial Museum. She is also Full Professor of Art History and Director of the International Museum Institute at USC. Holo’s first two books were on the relationship of art museums to evolving democracies in Spain and Mexico. They are Beyond the Prado: Museums and Identity in Democratic Spain and Oaxaca at the Crossroads: Managing Memory, Negotiating Change, both published by the Smithsonian Press and both translated into Spanish. Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values and Re-Mix: Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas, with the assistance of Mari-Tere Alvarez, argue respectively for establishing a set of qualitative values when assessing museums’ success over the tyranny of “the gate”, and a life-cycle theory for museums that allows for analysis of our museums through a panarchic lens. Both of the latest books have become important handbooks for strategic planning in museums across the spectrum of types of museums.

Holo’s Museums Studies Program at USC was a graduate program granting a double Masters in Art History and Museum Studies, with a critical mass of her graduates going on for doctorates. Her success in placing these graduates was noteworthy with almost 100% of them going into museums or related institutions such as foundations, auction houses, or university posts.

The USC Fisher Museum which Holo has directed since 1981 has a 3000-piece collection and has concentrated in the last 25 years on exhibitions from Latin America, Spain, as well as on Chicano and Mexican-American Art. The USC Pacific Asia Museum, which she has only recently taken on, will be a counterpart to Fisher by its concentration on Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Holo earned her Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara, her MA at Hunter College, CUNY, and her BA at Northwestern University.

Carlos Tortolero is the Founder and President of the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA), the first Latino museum accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. He is a recipient of an Honorary Degree from Columbia College (Chicago) and an Honorary Degree from the University of Illinois (Chicago). Since opening in 1987, the museum has become a national model for its exhibits, performances, arts education programs and advocacy on cultural equity issues. NMMA contains over 10,000 objects in its permanent collection. The museum is the only organization to have won two White House National Awards for Excellence in Youth Arts Programming. NMMA also has an extensive Performing Arts Program. Twenty exhibitions organized by the NMMA have traveled across the country, and eight have traveled to Mexico. From 1975-1987, Tortolero worked as a teacher, counselor and administrator in the Chicago Public School System. He has served on numerous boards, including those of the University of Illinois, the American Alliance of Museums, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Smithsonian Latino Center, and the Illinois Humanities Council. Tortolero is the co-author of Mexican Chicago and has written articles for national and international publications. He has also taught classes at the University of Illinois in Chicago, The School of the Art Institute and Northwestern University. Tortolero has a B.A. in Secondary Education and History from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an M.A. in Bilingual Education Supervision from Chicago State University. He has presented throughout the U.S. and Mexico and has also spoken at conferences in France, Sweden, and Argentina. He has won numerous awards for his work including the Ohtli Award which is the highest honor given by Mexico to individuals “who have distinguished themselves in the services of the Mexican community outside of Mexico.” He was named by the Chicago Sun-Times as one of the 200 most prominent Illinoisans in 200 years of history and was awarded the City of Chicago’s highest honor in the arts – The Fifth Star Award. He also received the Chicago History Museum “Making History” Award and served as a Co-chair for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Art & Culture transition committee.