Berkeley Alumna To Head Museum of Anthropology

UC Berkeley alumna Mari Lyn Salvador was named to be the new director of the UC Berkeley Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, beginning at the end of this month.

Salvador will take over for Judson King, who was appointed interim director after Doug Sharon, the museum's previous director, retired in 2007. She said her position at the museum will help her expand research of other cultures and make the museum more active in the community.

"My goal is to support and facilitate research in its priceless collections ... and to also make these objects and scholarly research more accessible to the general public," Salvador said in a statement.

After studying art at San Francisco State University and serving in the Peace Corps in the 1960s, Salvador earned her doctorate in cultural anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1976.

According to the campus statement, Salvador served as the chief executive officer at the San Diego Museum of Man beginning in May 2004, taking over for Sharon after he left to become the director at Phoebe A. Hearst Museum.

During her tenure at the Museum of Man, Salvador was praised for renovating the museum building and improving donations with the donor community, according to the statement.

Salvador has served as president of the Council for Museum Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association and vice president of the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership. She currently serves on the board of directors for the California Association of Museums.