Keynote Speaker: Paula Gangopadhyay

 

Paula Gangopadhyay
Museum Thought-Leader
Keynote Speaker: Redefining Borders...through Innovation and Collaboration
Thursday November 5, 2015, 9:00am

Paula Gangopadhyay is a visionary and entrepreneurial leader with over twenty years of demonstrated experience in bringing systemic change and positive community impact in education, cultural, business, and policy sectors, at local, state and national levels. She has helped organizations develop and realign strategic goals, by thinking out-of-the-box, activating dynamic and, sometimes atypical, public and private sector collaborations, and developing game-changing, replicable and scalable solutions and products. Paula is nationally recognized for being a passionate and resilient professional, and an effective community mobilizer, who strives to walk the walk, learn, and apply, as well as create, best practices. She is a thought-leader and inspirational speaker who believes in the power of innovative thinking, changing paradigms and building institutional capacity to achieve positive impact. 

President Barack Obama appointed Gangopadhyay as a member of the National Museums and Library Services Board (NMLSB) for a four-year term in 2012. NMLSB members work collectively to advise the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of over $200 M federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums, zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens.

Paula is the recipient of the 2012 American Alliance of Museums (AAM) EdCom Award for Excellence in Practice, the 2014 Michigan Informal Educator of the Year from the Michigan Science Teachers Association and the prestigious 2014 Faraday Science Communicator Award from the National Science Teacher’s Association.

Gangopadhyay has served as the Chief Learning Officer at The Henry Ford museums, Curator of Education, Public Programs, Visitor Services and Volunteers at the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Center for Education, Research and Practice, Executive Director of the Commission for Lansing Schools Success (CLASS) and Executive Director for the Plymouth Community Arts Council. She has also worked as an independent evaluation consultant.

Gangopadhyay has a master’s degree in history, certification in archival, museum and editing studies and a fellowship in education policy. 

 

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