Director of the Beneski Museum of Natural History
Director of the Beneski Museum of Natural History
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Job Description
Amherst has taken a leadership role among highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities in successfully diversifying the racial socioeconomic and geographic profile of its student body. The College is similarly committed to enriching its educational experience and its culture through the diversity of its faculty administration and staff.
Job Description:
Amherst College invites applications for the Director of the Beneski Museum of Natural History position. The Director is a fulltime yearround position starting at $103000 per year and commensurate with experience. The College seeks a visionary and dynamic leader to join our community to head this unique institution homed in a small liberalarts school a place where science history and education come alive.
The Beneski Museum of Natural History holds over 200000 paleontological and geological specimens (with additional anthropological osteological and taxidermy collections) amassed over the research history of the College. Perhaps our most charismatic materials lie in the Hitchcock dinosaur trackway (ichnology) collection. The Beneski Museum has three floors of exhibition galleries secure onsite and offsite collections storage and a conservation lab. The staff includes two fulltime positions: the Head of Collections & Operations and the Museum Educator. The museum receives about 23500 visitors annually with an additional 6000 K12 school/college/community educational group visits and the museum typically hosts a dozen shortterm visiting researchers each year. The Museum is free and open to the public.
Reporting directly to the Provost and Dean of the Faculty the Beneski Museum Director will serve as the chief administrator and science director of the Museum of Natural History. The Director is responsible for overall leadership strategic planning and ensuring that the operation of the Museum is consistent with the mission of the Museum and the mission of Amherst College. To do this the Director establishes policies procedures and sets both daytoday and longterm priorities. The Director supervises staff administers the Museum budget and its modest endowment and seeks grant funding. The Director provides broad oversight of all collectionsbased activities including support for digital documentation initiatives. With institutional support the Director will play a key role in moving the Museum beyond the baseline compliance threshold of NAGPRA. The Director will advance engagement with the Museum and its collections by promoting research opportunities overseeing meaningful gallery interpretation and temporary exhibits and organizing public and educational programs. The Director leads communications efforts and serves as the spokesperson and chief advocate for the Museum as a resource.
The Director will work with students faculty and staff to take appropriate actions to support a diverse workforce and to participate in the Colleges efforts to create a respectful and inclusive work environment. The Director ensures that the Museum is a welcoming environment for Museum visitors of all ages and backgrounds for research professionals from around the world and for Amherst and Five College students and staff who are diverse in matters of gender race ethnicity nationality socioeconomic status sexual identity political outlook and religion. The Director will collaborate closely with the Colleges Department of Geology which shares the Beneski Building and offers expertise in the collections and their history. This position will develop relationships across the campus with many academic departments the Colleges Galleries Libraries Archives and Museums (GLAMS) community as well as the regions Museums 10 FiveCollege collective.
REQUIRED CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS:
MS or PhD in a field of Earth Science or Biology. A concentration in Vertebrate Paleontology is preferred.
Three (PhD) to five (MS) or more years of progressively responsible experience in natural history museum administration or a comparable depth of experience in the use and administration of natural history museum collections.
Demonstrated knowledge of standards and best practices for natural history museums.
Experience that demonstrates
strong time management skills and the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects.
success in supervision and development of staff and in the establishment of a collegial working environment.
the ability to work cooperatively and diplomatically with a wide range of others.
success in securing external grants and overseeing their administration.
Interested candidates are asked to submit a C.V a cover letter and the names of three professional references online at Please be sure to upload all requested documents prior to clicking Submit. Applications cannot be revised once submitted. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
ABOUT AMHERST
Amherst College is a small diverse vibrant residential community of scholars with an enrollment of about 1800 students . The College is situated in the town of Amherst MA . The region has an extraordinary academic community exemplified by the Five College Consortium that comprises five campuses 2200 faculty members and 30000 students as well as rich cultural assets exemplified by Museums 10 and including nearby Tanglewood( and Jacobs Pillow . Amherst is both near to major urban centers (Boston Hartford and Albany are all within 100miles of Amherst and New York City is only 170 miles away) while being close to a wide variety of outdoor activities https://visithampshirecounty/explore/recreation. Excellent public and private K12 educational institutions are available to choose from.
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
Required Experience:
Director
Employment Type
Full-Time
