Board of Trustees and Board of Advisors

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Smarthistory relies on the the expertise and generosity of two boards, our Board of Trustees and Board of Advisors, see current membership below:

Board of Trustees

Renée Ater is a public scholar who works at the intersection of art and history. Her research and writing have focused on the intersection of race, monument building, and national identity. Her most recent project, Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, investigates how we visualize, interpret, and engage the slave past through contemporary monuments created for public spaces. 

Beth Harris is co-founder and executive director for Smarthistory and faculty emeritus at Khan Academy. Previously, she was the first director of digital learning at The Museum of Modern Art, where she started MoMA Courses Online and co-produced educational videos, websites and apps. And before joining MoMA, Beth was Associate Professor of art history and director of distance learning at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Sandy Heller is the Founder of The Heller Group, an art advisory with offices in New York and Paris. An active participant in the global art world for the past 20 years, Sandy has helped to organize hundreds of loans to museum shows all over the world. Sandy graduated from Tulane University in 1994 with a BA in Art History where he currently sponsors a class on “The Fundamentals of Art Acquisition” and has a degree in Painting Restoration from the Art Institute of Florence, Italy. Sandy Heller is on the Board of Trustees of Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York, as well as Vaika, a non-profit medical research organization at Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine that focuses on Canine Health. Sandy was an executive producer of the Martin Scorsese documentary film on the Grateful Dead, “Long Strange Trip.”

Arif Kadir is Vice President, Revenue Marketing at Digital Ocean. Previously he was Senior Director, BizOps at Twilio, Lead, Analytics at Paypal, Director, Corporate Partnerships at Khan Academy, and Engagement Manager at McKinsey. Arif holds an MBA from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from the University of York, and has taught math as a volunteer in South Africa.

Elizabeth Macaulay (chair) brings her expertise in Islamic and Roman architecture, art and archaeology, as well as in digital scholarship and pedagogy to the Smarthistory Board. She has served on the Governing Board of the Archaeological Institute of America. She is currently an Associate Professor at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, the Executive Officer of the M.A. in Liberal Studies and a faculty member of the MA programs in Liberal Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Digital Humanities.

Maura Miller is Special Counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell, focusing on white collar criminal defense and investigations.  Her work has required extensive travel, and she tries to squeeze in museum visits whenever she can.  She currently collects the art of her four year old daughter Rory who is extremely prolific in a variety of media.  She also is a member of the board of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert which provides legal and social services to breast cancer victims and their families.

Jennifer Freund Pardee is Director of Leadership Annual Giving at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Before that, she was Regional Director of Development at the American Jewish Committee, Atlanta, GA. Jenn has a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of New Mexico.

Minli Virdone brings her experience in education, technology and business to the Smarthistory Board. She’s currently the VP of Business Operations at SendGrid, and was previously the Head of Strategy and Chief of Staff at Khan Academy.

Marie Vought grew up in East Asia as a “third culture kid” with a Japanese mother and American father, returning to the Midwest as a junior in high school. Enamored with art history during college she briefly flirted with the idea of pursuing a PhD in Japanese art but practiced real estate finance law instead. While raising three children in Silicon Valley Marie recovered her original passion for art history as a docent at local art museums. Recently she has resumed her legal work as a pro bono immigration attorney. She firmly believes that the visual and performing arts are crucial keys to cultural fluency.

Steven Zucker is co-founder and executive director for Smarthistory and faculty emeritus at Khan Academy. Previously, he was chair of the department of the history of art and design at Pratt Institute and before that, he was dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY and chair of their art history department. He has taught at The School of Visual Arts, Hunter College, and at The Museum of Modern Art.

Board of Advisors

Margaret C. (Margi) Conrads joined Crystal Bridges in 2015 and now serves as Director of Curatorial Affairs and Strategic Art Initiatives. She also leads the curatorial efforts of Art Bridges, a nonprofit foundation started in 2017 by Alice Walton, to share great works of American art across the country. Additionally, Margi is the Museum’s liaison to the University of Arkansas School of Art. Margi is drawn to Smarthistory’s potential to bring art and its many histories to broad audiences via diverse voices and delivery systems. She offers extensive curatorial and leadership experience. Prior to Crystal Bridges, Margi served as Deputy Director of Art and Research at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas. Previously, she served for two decades as the Samuel Sosland Senior Curator of American Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo. Margi earned degrees in art history from City University of New York Graduate Center (Ph.D.); Washington University, St. Louis (M.A.), and Connecticut College (B.A.).

Ann Doerr views climate change as the existential crisis of our time. She serves on various boards to promote education for greenhouse gas mitigation. She  is delighted to serve on the advisory board of Smarthistory because of its focus on broadening the western canon  and enhancing cross cultural understanding, as she feels the appreciation of global culture is necessary for climate action.

Kim Mitchell has been with Brunswick Arts since October 2017. Kim has worked with top cultural clients in North America including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum, The Frick Collection, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, and the public broadcaster WNET.

Eric Saltzman as Executive Director of Harvard‘s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, co-founded Creative Commons creativecommons.org, the organization behind SmartHistory’s open access, Open Educational Resource system of shared use and re-use. Eric believes that both equity and the public interest require universal, comprehensive access to cultural, academic and scientific work and knowledge. An attorney, Eric has worked as a public defender in Seattle and Boston, taught trial advocacy, wrote and produced award-winning documentary films on the law for ABC, CBS, PBS and BBC, and headed a classic film programming company. He spends lots of time in museums and close to works of art.

Jeffrey Snover is a Microsoft Technical Fellow and Architect for Office 365. Prior has been the Chief Architect for Windows Server and is the inventor of PowerShell. He is passionate about Smarthistory’s mission and its ability to enrich the lives and humanity of every person through an appreciation and understanding of art and history through free digital content.

Smarthistory is a 501(c)(3) corporation

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