Elizabeth W. Easton, Co-Founder and Director
Since 2007, Elizabeth Easton has been the Director of the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL), a not-for-profit organization she co-founded with Agnes Gund to train museum curators in the fundamentals of management and leadership.

A distinguished curator, art historian and educator, she formulated the program for CCL as a direct result of her service as the first elected president of the Association of Art Museum Curators (2003-2006), an organization of more than 1200 curators from 350 museums across the United States. In her capacity as president, she launched an inquiry into the professional development of curators that led to the creation of CCL.

Easton earned her Ph.D. at Yale University, writing her dissertation on Edouard Vuillard's Interiors of the 1890's. She joined the Brooklyn Museum in 1988 as Assistant Curator, and was Chair of the Department of European Painting and Sculpture from 1999 until 2006. During her tenure, she was responsible for numerous exhibitions, including The Intimate Eye of Edouard Vuillard; Frederic Bazille: Prophet of Impressionism; Monet and the Mediterranean; Brooklyn Collects, among many others.

She has written books and numerous articles and essays for exhibition catalogues and a variety of art journals; she recently served as lead curator on the exhibition Snapshot: Painters and Photography from Bonnard to Vuillard that opened at the Van Gogh Museum in 2011, and traveled to the Phillips Collection in Washington and the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2012. Other recent scholarship has focused on original Impressionist frames. Among the many academic honors she has received, she was awarded a Fulbright and two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships. In recognition of her contributions to French culture, Easton was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government in 2008.

She has served as a trustee of the Town School, the Spence School, Studio in a School, the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), is on the Visiting Committee of the Department of Paintings Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is on the advisory boards of a number of other cultural institutions.

Agnes Gund, Co-Founder, CCL; President Emerita, Museum of Modern Art; Chair, MoMA PS1; Trustee, Cleveland Museum of Art
Agnes Gund is President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and Chair of its International Council.  She is also Chair of MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center.  Ms. Gund joined the MoMA Board in 1976 and served as its President from 1991 until 2002.  She is the Founder and a Trustee of Studio in a School Association, a non-profit organization she established in 1977 in response to budget cuts that virtually eliminated arts classes from New York City public schools.  In January 2012, Ms. Gund was appointed Member of the New York State Council on the Arts. A philanthropist and collector of modern and contemporary art, Ms. Gund is Chair of the Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of New York City, and currently serves on the boards of Chess in the Schools, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Socrates Sculpture Park, among others. She is co-founder of the Center for Curatorial Leadership and an Honorary Trustee of the Independent Curators International as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland.  A civic leader and staunch supporter of education, women’s issues and environmental concerns, among other causes, Ms Gund has served on the boards of such wide-ranging organizations as the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Fund for Public Schools.  She earned a B.A. in History from Connecticut College and a M.A. in Art History from Harvard University.  She has since received numerous honorary doctorate degrees, including honors from CUNY Graduate Center (2007) and Brown University (1996). 

Raymond Horton, Faculty Liaison between Center for Curatorial Leadership and Columbia Business School & Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance, Director of the Social Enterprise Program, Bernstein Faculty Leader
Raymond D. Horton is the Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance at the Columbia Business School, where he also serves as Director of the Social Enterprise Program. He received his B.A. from Grinnell College in 1962, J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1971. A member of Columbia Business School faculty since 1970, he served as Executive Director of the Temporary Commission on City Finances from 1975 to 1977. After returning to Columbia, he founded the Setting Municipal Priorities Project with Charles Brecher, and co-edited, with Brecher, the ten volumes in that series. Between 1980 and 1998, Horton held the positions of Research Director and President with the Citizens Budget Commission. The Commission is a public advocate of responsible financial management in New York City and New York State. His writings include numerous books, articles, and reports in the field of State and local finance and politics. His most recent book, Power Failure: New York City Government in the Post-1960 Era, was published by Oxford University Press in 1993. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Horton has served on a number of private and nonprofit boards. Horton was born and raised in Iowa, but has lived in New York City since 1965. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Jacqueline, and daughters Justine and Georgia. His son Radley received his doctorate in Environmental Science at Columbia University.

Sally Block, Director of Administration, Center for Curatorial Leadership
Executive Director, Association of Art Museum Curators
Sally Block has served as the Executive Director of the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) and AAMC Foundation since 2004. The organization, with a membership of over 1200 individuals, has a key objective to support the role of curators in shaping the mission of art museums throughout North America. Since 2007, Ms. Block has also served as Senior Programmatic Consultant and Director of Administration for the Center for Curatorial Leadership. Ms. Block was adjunct professor in the Arts & Cultural Management program at the Pratt Institute from 2003 - 2011, and currently serves as the Vice President of Governance on the Board of ArtTable. She was chair of the Museum Committee at the College Art Association from 2006 to 2009. Prior to her position at the AAMC and CCL, Ms. Block was Deputy Director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA) in Brooklyn. Additionally, she has held positions with Learning through an Expanded Arts Program (LEAP), Teach for America and the Ceasefire Foundation of Washington. She holds degrees from the University of Missouri, Columbia and the Pratt Institute.

Hannah Howe, Director of Communications and Development, Center for Curatorial Leadership  
A member of the CCL team since 2009, Hannah oversees programmatic planning and grant stewardship while also acting as liaison to Fellows, Alumni, Supporters, and the Board of Trustees. From 2009 - 2012, Hannah worked as Programs and Membership Associate for the Association of Art Museum Curators, assisting with the coordination of the annual conference and communicating with the membership of over 1,200 North American curators. Recently, Hannah was curatorial assistant for the international exhibition Snapshot: Painters and Photography Bonnard to Vuillard opened at the Van Gogh Museum in 2011, and traveled to the Phillips Collection in Washington and the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2012.

Hannah is currently a Master’s Candidate at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. In 2009, Ms. Howe graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in the History of Art and a minor in Visual Arts. She now serves Bowdoin as a member of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s Collectors Collaborative, an alumni group founded to support the Museum’s acquisition program. Additionally she is a member of The Museum of Modern Art Junior Associates and has held internships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Drawing Center.

Madeleine Haddon, Executive Assistant for Programs, Center for Curatorial Leadership
Madeleine Haddon has been the Executive Assistant for Programs at the Center for Curatorial Leadership since 2012. Madeleine oversees the organization and implementation of all activities and special events related to the CCL fellowship, as well as maintaining communication with the CCL fellows. She also serves as the Programs Associate for the Association of Art Museum Curators, assisting with the execution of the AAMC’s Awards for Excellence and Annual Meeting, along with all member communication. Madeleine is currently a Junior Associate at the Museum of Modern Art. She has previously held curatorial positions at About Drawing, the private collection of Werner H. Kramarsky, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the department of Prints, Drawings & Photographs of the Yale University Art Gallery, and Galería Murnau in Seville, Spain. Madeleine has also held internships as the Studio Museum in Harlem and Vanity Fair.

Madeleine earned a B.A. in History of Art from Yale University. For her thesis on Francisco de Goya’s Los Caprichos received a Mellon Travel Grant to conduct research at El Museo del Prado and Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, as well as the A. Conger Goodyear Prize awarded by the History of Art department along with Yale University Art Gallery.

Advisory Committee
Agnes Gund, Co-Founder, CCL;President Emerita, Museum of Modern Art;Chair, MoMA PS1; Trustee, Cleveland Museum of Art
William Griswold, Director, Morgan Library and Museum
Kathy Halbreich, Associate Director, Museum of Modern Art
Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Timothy Potts, Director, Fitzwilliam Museum
Kimerly Rorschach, Director, Nasher Museum at Duke University
Axel Rüger, Director, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Rt. Hon. Lord Smith of Finsbury, Director, Clore Leadership Programme, London
Ann Tenenbaum, Trustee, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem
Susana Torruella-Leval, Director Emerita, El Museo del Barrio

Ex-Officio
Emily B. Neff, President, Association of Art Museum Curators
Elizabeth Easton, Co-Founder and Director, CCL