Dr. Louise Bernard is the founding Director of the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center. She was formerly Director of Exhibitions at the New York Public Library. As a Senior Content Developer and Interpretive Planner in the New York office of the museum design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Louise worked on the design team that developed the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, along with other international projects. She previously served as Curator of Prose and Drama for the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, and as Assistant Professor of English at Georgetown University. Louise received a BA Hons in Drama from the University of Manchester, an MA in Theatre History and an MA in English Literature from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in African American Studies and American Studies from Yale. Her current research engages with the literary archive, material culture, museology, public history, and interpretive planning and design. Louise is a scholarly advisor to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and a Board member of the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association.
