Museum Studies Program appoints new assistant director

Katherine Burton Jones has been appointed assistant director and research adviser for the Harvard Extension School’s Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) program in Museum Studies.

Jones has taught courses in the Museum Studies program for the last decade and has served as the program’s research adviser since 2004. Previously, she was the assistant dean for information technology and media services at Harvard Divinity School for nine years. She recently served as the director of development for the Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket, and has also served as a fundraising consultant for several local museums.

From 1994 to 2000 she was an assistant director at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, where she was instrumental in demonstrating the importance of websites and multimedia to all of the Harvard museums. She was responsible for raising funds for the various public-facing technology projects that were carried out during her time, including the virtual exhibit, “Against the Winds: American Indian Running Traditions.” While at the Peabody she served on the boards of the Museum Computer Network, the New England Museum Association, and the Mildred Morse Allen Center of the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

Jones replaces Linda Newberry, who shepherded the Museum Studies Program from a certificate to a master’s degree program, and was responsible for the successful completion of the program by countless students through the years.