LaNesha DeBardelaben

LaNesha DeBardelaben’s passion is to drive success for Black museums. She is a public historian, museum administrator, and writer. She studies the intellectual lives of Black women who attended predominantly white colleges in the early 20th century and their later civil rights activism. At the University of Washington, she is a doctoral candidate in the College of Education and writes about African American educational history.

Professionally, she is President & CEO of the Northwest African American Museum and specializes in organizational leadership and management, institutional programming, and strategic engagement. LaNesha currently serves as National President of the Board of Directors of the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) and is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Additionally, she previously served two terms on the National Executive Council of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the 100+ year old organization founded in 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson and led by Mary McLeod Bethune from 1936 to 1951. LaNesha has also served on the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Her 20-year career in museums began at the National Museum of Kenya in Africa in 2001, and she has studied museums and libraries internationally in Ghana, South Africa, England, Germany, and Israel. LaNesha is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, The Links, Incorporated, and The Pierians, Incorporated. Civically, she is a member of the International Women’s Forum and Seattle’s Community Development Roundtable.

She earned a BA in history and secondary education from Kalamazoo College; an MA in history and museum studies from the University of Missouri in St. Louis; an MLS in archives management from Indiana University-Bloomington; and an MA in Comparative Black History from Michigan State University. Prior to her award-winning career in public history, LaNesha was in K-12 history and language arts education. She is an ordained deacon and licensed Baptist minister.