Welcome

As Museum Director, Violetta will provide leadership to our initiatives for further research, development, and education across the UA, gem, mineral, and local Tucson communities. Violetta has a successful history serving as the Interim Deputy Director of Content and Collections and Director of Collections at the Oakland Museum of California, where she served on the Senior Leadership team, representing the Collections, Production, and Curatorial departments, establishing overall strategy for exhibitions, preservation, and collections care. In addition to her collections background, Violetta is a skilled personnel manager with a successful track record of completing major projects including AAM reaccreditation, construction of new facilities, and strategic planning. This position is not her first interaction with the mineral collection; earlier in her career, she served as a Museum Policy Consultant for our collection in 2010, while working on her Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies at the Harvard Extension School. Violetta also has a Bachelor of Science in Archaeological Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Please help us welcome Violetta!