Staff + Boards

Who are we? Designers and makers and accountants and innovators and educators and business leaders and artists and investors and students and lawyers and the list goes on… 

Our staff is small but mighty. Team members include:

Tanner Woodford, Founder & Executive Director
Kevin Reader, Executive Director of Programming & Operations
Juan Pablo Neira-Solano, Development Manager
Haoyu Lu, Project Manager
Lauren Boegen, Executive Director of Collections
Amira Hegazy, Curator of Letters Beyond Form

The Design Museum is governed by the Board of Directors and supported by a growing Auxiliary Board.

Board of Directors

Chair: Wendy Manning, Demeter Strategy Design
Vice Chair: Rana Komar, Independent Contractor
Ex-Officio Chair: Bill Beach, Independent Futures Trader, CBOE
Secretary: Andrea Kramer, ASKramer Law
Treasurer: Ruth Goran, Ruth Goran CPA

Charles Adler, Kickstarter & Center for Lost Arts
Duke Alden, Alight Solutions
Helyn Goldenberg, Sotheby’s
Todd Heiser, Gensler
Jamie Koval, Substance 
Sam Landers, Trope
Rob McKay, Connect Gallery & The Silver Room
Irv Michaels, Michaels Consulting Ltd.
Jim Misener, 50,000feet
Kate Neisser, Independent Writer & Editor
Bud Rodecker, Span
Arlene Semel, Semel-Snow
Eugene Varnado II, YoojDesign
Tanner Woodford, Design Museum of Chicago
Richard Wright, Wright

Auxiliary Board

Sarah Haque, SZH Consulting, Co-Chair
Ashley Lukasik, Murmur Ring, Co-Chair

Deaa Bataineh, IIT Institute of Design, Member
Laura Sofia Cardozo, Breakout, Member
Marlene Paez Dukes, People's Action Institute, Member
Alexandria Eregbu, FINDING IJEOMA, Member
Mejay Gula, Site Design Group, Inaugural Member
Amanda Harth, Monday Coffee, Member
Sharlene King, Salesforce, Member
Justin Redding, UJAMAA Construction, Member
Chris Rudd, ChiByDesign, Member

Jon Veal, alt Space Chicago, Emeritus Member